…Tinubu maintained that the ultimate safeguard of democracy lies in how the electoral process is managed,
ABUJA, NIGERIA- The iNews Times | President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday defended his assent to the Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment), insisting that the integrity of elections rests more on efficient administration and human supervision than on the real-time electronic transmission of results.
Speaking shortly after signing the bill at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the President Tinubu addressed the controversy surrounding live uploads of results from polling units, describing the debate as secondary to the broader objective of ensuring credible and confusion-free elections.
Tinubu maintained that the ultimate safeguard of democracy lies in how the electoral process is managed, stressing that no matter the sophistication of any technological system, it is people who operate, supervise and finalise election outcomes.
Tinubu noted that final declarations of results would always be made by designated electoral officials rather than computers, urging Nigerians to reflect on the country’s broadband capacity and overall technical readiness before insisting on mandatory real-time transmission.
The President reiterated that Nigeria’s voting process remains fundamentally manual, from ballot issuance and thumbprinting to counting and collation with electronic transmission applying only to the recorded figures documented in Form EC8A after manual collation.
According to him, what is transmitted electronically is essentially the arithmetic record of manually collated results, warning against system glitches, cyber interference and potential hacking risks.
The amendment has sparked intense public and legislative debate in recent weeks. While the House of Representatives initially approved a version mandating real-time electronic transmission, the Senate retained electronic transmission provisions but allowed manual collation where technology fails.
The final version signed into law provides that results be electronically transmitted after Form EC8A is duly signed and stamped at polling units. However, in the event of network challenges, the manually signed result form will serve as the basis for collation and declaration.
The Senate’s revision drew criticism from opposition parties, civil society groups and reform advocates, who argued that the fallback clause could create room for ambiguity and manipulation.
