2026 Electoral Act: We Engaged AGF, INEC, CSOs, Devt Partners For Two Years Before Enactment — National Assembly

In a statement released by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, Senate Leader and APC representative for Ekiti Central, highlighted key achievements of the new administration. He revealed that the legislative arm engaged with a wide range of stakeholders over a two-year period before the policy was ultimately enacted.

According to him, the new electoral governance framework equally mandates INEC to deploy bimodal voters verification system, BVAS, for voters accreditation; recommend two-year jail imprisonment for Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, that withholds vital documents; establish an electronic register of voters and review upward campaign funds for different elective offices.

Bamidele, who explained how the National Assembly sustainably engaged the CSOs, INEC, Office of the Attorney-General of Federation, OAGF, and development partners, among others, for two consecutive years before the new electoral regime came into force, said the making of the new regime “is a collective work that involves nearly all critical stakeholders.

‘’The National Assembly worked with such different stakeholders as OAGF, CSOs, INEC and our development partners, among others, before we eventually completed the process.

“As we were making progress, the stakeholders too were making their input, and all the inputs were incorporated in the Act. In view of the time constraint we are facing now, I do not believe the executive requires days or weeks to review it before assent since we all contributed to it. Its outcome is not a unilateral effort of the parliament, but of Nigerians at large.”

The National Assembly had harmonised different versions of the Electoral Bill 2026 produced by its two chambers, especially with respect to Clause 60(3); passed the bill into law and transmitted it to President Bola Tinubu for assent in order to avoid constitutional crisis that might arise in the preparation for the 2027 general election.

The President had subsequently signed the Electoral Bill 2026 into law after 24 hours of its enactment, thereby completing the two-year process of recrafting the new regime expected to shape the next elections positively.

Although civil society organisations, CSO, had questioned the speed with which the Electoral Bill 2026 was signed into law, the president observed that the essence of democracy was designed to promote conversations aimed at deepening national development, nation-building and stability of the federation.

Bamidele explained the potential of the new electoral governance framework “to obviously strengthen institutional independence; enhance transparency in election management; improve technological integration and reinforce accountability mechanisms in the country’s election management system.

According to him, under Section 3, for instance, the new legislation established a dedicated fund for INEC which, according to him, will guarantee the financial autonomy, operational stability and administrative continuity of the commission.

He added that with this provision alone, INEC would operate with greater independence and quicker corrective powers.

The section requires that election funds be released earlier, at least six months before the general election and expands INEC’s powers to review questionable result declarations made under duress or procedural violations

He also cited Section 47 of the Electoral Act, which mandated all presiding officers “to use BVAS or any other technological device that may be prescribed by the commission, for the accreditation of voters, to verify, confirm or authenticate the particulars of the intending voter in the manner prescribed by the commission.”

Bamidele clarified that the new electoral governance framework conditionally permitted the resort to Form EC8A to transmit election results as prescribed by INEC, provided the electronic transmission of election results failed due to communication failure.

He also pointed out Section 72(2), which recommended that a certified true copy of the order of the court “shall be sufficient for the purpose of swearing-in any candidate declared as the winner of an election by the court where that of INEC fails, refuses, or neglects to issue the certificate of return.”

According to him, Section 74(1) of the Electoral Act, specifically mandates the REC to release the certified true copy of any document within 24 hours after payment has been made. The failure to comply will attract an imprisonment of a minimum term of two years without an option of fine.

He explained that unlike the 2022 Electoral Act that had been repealed, the new regime only provided for direct and consensus primaries under Section 84 (1-2) as means of electing candidates for elective offence, thereby phasing out indirect primaries to enable broader party members to participate in the process and reduce the use of money to compromise party delegates.

Bamidele said that Section 77 (1-7) stipulates stringent measures that will henceforth govern and regulate the conduct of primaries and the process of electing party candidates, adding that the section mandates each political party to maintain a digital register of its members; issue membership cards to each of them and submit such a register to INEC 21 days before the party primaries, congresses or conventions.

He further explained that the new regime reviewed upward the election spending limit under Section 92(1-8) of the Electoral Act, raising the spending threshold for presidential poll from N5 billion to N10 billion; from N1billion to N3 billion for governorship; from N100 million to N500 million for the Senate; from N70 million to N250 million for the House of Representatives; from N30 million to N100 million for the House of Assembly; from N30 million to N60 million for Area Council and from N5 million to N10 million for the councillorship poll.