Efforts to tighten Nigeria’s electoral process suffered a major setback on Tuesday, February 17, as the House of Representatives adopted the Senate’s position allowing manual collation of results as a fallback where electronic transmission fails, triggering protests, walkouts, and scenes of disorder on the floor of the chamber.

Opposition lawmakers staged a walkout from plenary after their bid to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory — without manual collation as a fallback — was defeated. Some accused the majority of collecting bribes in exchange for their votes.

Members of the Minority Caucus walk out of the House of Representatives

Chanting “ APC OLE” https://t.co/9CnpyRfGRd pic.twitter.com/N1Sek0GNPA

— Adesuwa G (@Adesuwa_G) February 17, 2026

The crisis followed a tense and rowdy session earlier in the day, when lawmakers clashed over a motion seeking to rescind the House’s earlier passage of the Electoral Act amendment bill in December.

Francis Waive, chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, moved the motion to reverse the December decision. When Speaker Tajudeen Abbas put the motion to a voice vote, the “nays” were audibly louder than the “ayes”. Despite this, Abbas ruled in favour of the “ayes”, sparking loud protests across the chamber as lawmakers shouted objections and accused the leadership of railroading the process.

The Speaker subsequently called for an executive session, but that proposal was also rejected by voice vote. He, however, proceeded to move the House into executive session, further heightening tensions.

REPS IN UPROAR AS PROTESTS ROCK ELECTORAL ACT BILL AMENDMENT

At an emergency plenary on electoral matters today, the House of Representatives commenced deliberations under tense conditions. Outside the National Assembly, protesters continued demonstrations, demanding real-time… pic.twitter.com/fAoyBFKYid

— ARISE NEWS (@ARISEtv) February 17, 2026

When plenary resumed after about two hours, Adebayo Balogun, chairman of the Committee on Electoral Matters, moved a motion for the House to consider the Electoral Act amendment bill at the committee of the whole.

As Balogun began outlining the provisions, Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, who presided as chairman of the committee of the whole, interrupted him and directed that only the long title of the bill be read. He later read clauses one to 10 en bloc, prompting fresh protests from lawmakers who demanded clause-by-clause consideration.

The chamber descended into a rowdy session lasting over 15 minutes. Although order was eventually restored and clauses were called individually, some lawmakers complained they did not have copies of the bill. The proceedings continued regardless.

Controversy peaked at section 60, which deals with the transmission of election results. The fresh amendment provides that results shall be electronically transmitted from polling units to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after Form EC8A has been signed and stamped. However, it adds that where electronic transmission fails due to communication challenges, the manually completed EC8A form shall remain the primary source for collation and declaration.

Opposition lawmakers insisted that the provision should end after the first paragraph, arguing that retaining manual collation as a fallback undermines the credibility of electronic transmission.

Bamidele Salam, chairman of the Committee on Public Accounts, moved that the clause allowing manual collation be deleted, but the proposal was rejected through a voice vote. Another amendment seeking to make electronically transmitted results prevail where there is a conflict with manual results was also defeated. A separate proposal to accord equal legal weight to both electronic transmission and manual collation failed as well.

Following the rejection of the amendments, opposition lawmakers walked out of the chamber in protest.

The House’s action effectively aligns its position with that of the Senate, which had earlier approved electronic transmission but retained manual collation as a fallback where technology fails.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) have criticised the lawmakers’ decision, warning that the manual backup clause creates a loophole for electoral fraud. According to election observers and advocacy groups, the law provides no clear standard for determining when electronic transmission has genuinely failed, leaving room for abuse.

They argue that dishonest actors could simply claim technological failure in contentious areas and revert to manual collation to manipulate results. CSOs also contend that retaining manual collation undermines the core objective of electronic transmission — reducing human interference in the results process.

More critically, they warn that the amendment fails to close the legal gap exposed after the 2023 general elections, when the Supreme Court rejected attempts to rely on electronically transmitted results as evidence, on the grounds that electronic transmission was not mandatory under the law at the time.

“The bill does not define what constitutes failure, how such failure is to be documented, or what verification mechanisms must apply. In the absence of clear safeguards, this clause risks creating a loophole that could undermine the very purpose of electronicr transmission,” a coalition of CSOs said in a statement last Tuesday, February 10, after the Senate passed its version.

The Senate must do what is right by the people.

We join our voices with other bodies to reject half‑measures. Nigerians deserve full transparency and the Senate's clause 60(3) is a clever loophole that drags us back. Our demand is simple, "Mandatory Electronic Transmission of… pic.twitter.com/oDGH83UyoP

— Yiaga Africa (@YIAGA) February 10, 2026

In their view, making manual collation a fallback preserves the same ambiguity and weakens the enforceability of electronic results in future election disputes.

Speaking on Monday, February 16, during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, warned that it would be a missed opportunity if Nigeria fails to adopt mandatory electronic transmission of results.

He stressed that collation should not proceed without comparing results transmitted in real time from the polling unit to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) with the physical copies, warning that failure to do so would undermine transparency and the credibility of the electoral process.

Beyond section 60, the House amended section 28(1) of the Act, reducing the period for INEC to issue notices of election from 360 to 300 days. Lawmakers also amended section 84 to limit political parties’ nomination methods to direct primaries and consensus, removing indirect primaries.