The Nigerian Senate has officially distanced itself from the alternative of enforcing a chunky electronic vote casting system for the 2027 customary elections.
The upper chamber clarified on Thursday that the Goal National Electoral Price (INEC) at the second lacks the technical infrastructure and logistical readiness to transition away from manual balloting.
This clarification used to be led by Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire, the Chairman of the Senate Ad-hoc Committee tasked with reviewing the 2026 Electoral Bill.
Talking correct through a tv interview on Arise Info, Adegbonmire emphasized that the ongoing legislative amendments ought to peaceful no longer be pressured with a bound toward “e-vote casting.”
He eminent that while the Senate supports the electronic transmission of results, the explicit act of vote casting—casting and counting ballots—ought to dwell a bodily, manual direction of for the foreseeable future.
The Distinction Between E-Voting and IReV
Adegbonmire highlighted a gigantic public misconception regarding the INEC Consequence Viewing (IReV) portal.
He explained that IReV is merely a transparency instrument designed to publicize results that opt up already been hand-counted and recorded at polling devices.
“IReV is no longer an e-vote casting platform, but a platform the assign the election results that opt up been manually counted and declared at the polling devices are uploaded and publicised,” the Senator acknowledged.
He extra argued that “real-time” transmission is technically no longer potential below the present manual system due to results ought to first be bodily documented on Make EC8A.
In preserving with the lawmaker, the terminology—whether or no longer the legislation uses the notice “transmit,” “switch,” or “add”—does no longer switch the truth that manual counting stays the root of Nigeria’s electoral integrity.
This detailed clarification follows the Senate’s present decision to bow to public outcry by formally approving the electronic transmission of results in the 2026 Electoral Bill.
On the opposite hand, the lawmakers incorporated a “fallback” provision, allowing manual collation to clutch precedence if technological screw ups occur on election day.
The 12-member convention committee, no longer too prolonged previously expanded to make obvious broader representation, is now working to harmonize these provisions with the model handed by the Apartment of Representatives.
The target is to present a unified bill for President Bola Tinubu’s assent by the cease of February 2026.
