Making the 2026 Electoral Act Better for 2027 Elections

Every general election needs laws to guide how it will be held. The Electoral Act 2026 is meant for the 2027 elections. Nigeria has changed its Electoral Acts before to make elections better. This is why the 2022 Electoral Act was reviewed early this year, leading to the Electoral Act 2026.

But the unclear rules on how to send votes electronically from polling units to INEC’s IReV portal caused a lot of noise in parliament in February. There was pushback from different groups until the lawmakers had to listen to the people.

Still, many experts, including former INEC Chairman Attahiru Jega and former Akwa Ibom State Resident Electoral Commissioner Mike Igini, say there are still problems in the Electoral Act that need fixing. Mr Igini says the upcoming elections have already “been sabotaged” at the balloting level because of Section 137 of the Act, if it is not changed. Jega and Igini are respected voices on elections in Nigeria, having served INEC for many years. When they speak, many Nigerians pay attention.

As the 2027 elections approach, Mr Jega worries about the unclear rules in Section 63 (3) of the Electoral Act regarding electronic results. This section says that if electronic transmission fails, they can rely on Form EC8A. He warns that this is a dangerous situation. He said, “Given what we know about the Nigerian environment and the desperation for do-or-die position, there shouldn’t be such a vague provision, which would be used to truncate the electoral transmission in favour of manual transmission of results, which is easier to fraudulently manipulate and exploit.”

Mr Jega also has concerns about Section 138 of the Act. This section says certificate forgery is not an offence. This was one of the reasons to challenge candidates in pre-election cases. Removing this serious crime will hurt the moral standards in our society and how Nigeria chooses its leaders.

We must criticize our lawmakers for making these odd changes to the laws that will guide the next elections. It is surprising they ignored that Section 138 of the Electoral Act goes against Section 131 (3) of the 1999 Constitution. This part of the Constitution deals with disqualifying candidates who present fake certificates to INEC. In any legal conflict, the Constitution is always more important.

Forgery is a crime in Nigeria and has never been accepted in elections. So why change this now? PREMIUM TIMES urges the National Assembly to quickly remove this part of the law to avoid embarrassment. They should do this for the sake of our collective values as a nation.

This kind of fraud ruined Salisu Buhari's time as Speaker of the House of Representatives, which lasted only 49 days in 1999 because he forged a University of Toronto degree. Recently, David Lyon lost his election as governor of Bayelsa State when the Supreme Court annulled it in 2019 due to his deputy’s certificate forgery, which made their ticket invalid.

Allowing certificate forgery in elections goes against public feelings. It is a national disgrace that has not been condemned as it should be. This bad law raises questions about Nigeria's values. Our lawmakers seem more focused on their selfish interests than the good of the country.

There are also contradictions in Sections 63 (1) and 63 (2) of the Electoral Act 2026 about ballot papers. Subsection 1 clearly states, “the ballot paper, which does not bear the official mark prescribed by the Commission, shall not be counted.” But subsection 2 goes against this.

This problematic subsection states, “Where the returning officer is satisfied that a ballot paper which does not bear the official mark was from a book of ballot papers which was furnished to the Presiding Officer of the polling unit in which the vote was cast for use at the election in question, he or she shall, notwithstanding the absence of the official mark, count that ballot.” This seems to come from a place of bad intent and party politics.

These contradictions were also in the 2022 Electoral Act, which the 2026 Act is supposed to fix. The confusion was clear in the 2023 election results of Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State, which had 165,616 ballot papers that were not stamped, signed, or dated. The Election Tribunal and Court of Appeal rejected these results. But the Supreme Court overturned that decision, citing Section 63 (2) of the previous Electoral Act as the reason.

An Electoral Act should improve on the previous one, as seen in the differences in the rules on the Smart Card Reader, Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), and Election Results Viewing (IReV) portals between the 2015 and 2020 versions of the Act.

We don’t think the 2026 Act has achieved this goal based on the problems pointed out by credible experts. Mr Igini, as a REC in Akwa Ibom, helped to convict two professors for election rigging. He described Section 137 of the Electoral Act as “one of the rigging provisions,” which he and others are fighting to repeal for fair elections.

This section makes INEC the only defendant in court cases, while the presiding and electoral officers, who should be held accountable for tampering with results or altering results sheets, are protected. The plaintiff can NEVER prove their case.

If Section 137 stays as it is, Mr Igini says that bad members of INEC could give security features of ballot papers to politicians to print their own for stuffing ballot boxes, as seen in Bayelsa and Imo states in 2019.

As Section 138 (2) stands, “an act or omission which may be contrary to the instruction or directive of the Commission, or officer appointed by the purpose of the election” can happen and it would not in itself be grounds to question a result. This is very alarming.

The problems in the Electoral Act 2026 are deeply troubling. It is hard to believe that opposition lawmakers were part of creating this law. They all seem involved in a plan to undermine democracy in Nigeria.

Going into the 2027 elections with a flawed law will likely lead us back into a cycle of bad governance that does nothing but create empty promises.