Electoral Act: What Senate passed is transmission of results – Abaribe

The Senate Minority Caucus have clarified that the Senate passed real-time transmission of election results from polling units in the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act.

There were reports that the Senate on Wednesday rejected the proposal to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to compulsorily transmit all election results electronically.

At a press conference on Thursday, opposition lawmakers, including Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, Natasha Akpoti, amongst others, said the proposal was not rejected, stressing that the Senate did not pass transfer but transmission of results.

Abaribe, who addressed journalists on behalf of the opposition lawmakers said, “We felt that it is necessary to clarify what happened yesterday to put the record straight.

“Yesterday, the Senate did not pass transfer of results which was the 2022 Act. What we passed was transmission of results.

“I need to make this very clear. Everyone of us, who has the privilege to represent a senatorial district came here under the trust of their senatorial zones.

“The reason for us to go into the closed-section was so that we can tidy up everything inside there so that when we return to plenary, we will pass it without any rancor.

“I can assure you that both the electoral committee of the Senate, the ad-hoc committee of the Senate and the executive session that we had, we all agreed on Section 63, which is electronic transmission of results. We approved transmit not transfer.

“What is in 2022 Act is transfer and we don’t want a law that vague or misinterpreted by anybody.

“We want a law that is clear, concise and unambiguous. It is an electric transmission of results.”