After a chaotic session at the House of Representatives that ended with opposition lawmakers staging a walk-out and chanting of “APC, ole” (thief), the lower and upper legislative chambers eventually succeeded in passing the Electoral Act amendment bill on Tuesday.
Speaker Tajudeen Abbas dismissed fierce objections from opposition legislators to rescind the bill initially passed in December 2025 using a controversial voice vote to make the cancellation.
The Senate also passed the bill during an executive session after resolving disputes that arose from transmitting election results in real-time on INEC’s result viewing portal.
Peoples Gazette compiled a list of major changes in the Electoral Act amendment bill awaiting President Bola Tinubu’s assent ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Voter registration: The amendment narrows the documents required for voter registration to three: a birth certificate, a Nigerian passport and a National Identification Number (NIN). Anyone who wishes to register with the Independent National Electoral Commission must submit only these three documents, per the amended bill. The National Assembly has removed the national identity card and driving licence from the list of acceptable identification documents contained in the Electoral Act 2022.
Downloadable voter card: Nigerians may no longer need to wait for hours at INEC offices to collect their voter cards with the introduction of a downloadable voter card. The Electoral Act amendment bill allows voters to download their voter cards directly from the INEC website. The downloadable cards are projected to increase voter participation in the next polls.
Electronic transmission of results: The Electoral Act amendment bill approves the real-time upload of results on INEC’s result viewing portal (IREV). But there’s a clause that allows polling officers to fallback to the Form EC8A result sheet as the primary source of collation if network failures prevent electronic transmission. The outgoing Electoral Act 2022 relied solely on the form EC8A for collation.
Mode of party primary election: The new bill adopts direct primaries and consensus as the only methods for political parties to nominate candidates. The Electoral Act amendment bill scrapped indirect primaries, eliminating the use of party delegates from different states to vote in a candidate. The new policy is expected to level the playing ground and curb vote-buying among party delegates.
Aspirants curried the delegates’ favour by using cash to buy their votes. At the last All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party’s presidential primary elections in 2022, The Gazette reported that President Bola Tinubu, an aspirant at the time, induced Ogun delegates with $25,000 to secure their votes while former vice president Yemi Osinbajo’s $5,000 offer was rejected by delegates who deemed the money too small.
But the amended bill only recognises direct primaries where registered party members will each cast their votes to choose the main candidate and a consensus where the party leader will name a candidate as the unanimous party choice.
Disbursement of funds to INEC: The new bill reduces the timeline for disbursing election funds to INEC from 12 months to six months before the general elections. The bill gives INEC a shorter period to prepare its finance.
Deadline for submission of candidates’ list:The Electoral Act amendment bill mandates political parties to submit the list of candidates at least 120 days (four months) before the election date. The outgoing Electoral Act 2022 prescribed a 180 days (six months) deadline for submission of all party candidates.
INEC’s final list of candidates:The new bill directs INEC to publish a final list of candidates 60 days (two months) before the election day, replacing the previous 150-day provision in the the outgoing Electoral Act
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