Tuesday, October 14, 2025 - The National Assembly has called for an of the Independent National Electoral early conduct in November 2026, of the upcoming gubernatorial and presidential elections scheduled for 2027.
The elections, by the arrangements Commission (INEC) are
planned to hold in February or March 2027. Arising from a one-day public
hearing on electoral matters held by the joint committees of both chambers of
the National Assembly on Electoral Matters, on Monday in Abuja, they also
proposed other amendments to the 2022 Electoral Act to include election into
the two offices be held not later than 185 days before May 29 which is the
expiration of the incumbent.
Making presentations at the public hearing, stakeholders
demanded for electronic voting and real-time transmission of election results.
Section 4 (7) of the proposed amendment states, “Elections into the office of
the president and governor of a state shall be held not later than 185 days
before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of the office.”
Calculation of the 185 days before May 29, 2027, clearly
shows that the election must be conducted in November 2026, since the number of
days from May 28, 2027 to December 1, 2026 are 180 days.
For the federal and state of legislators, Section 4(5) of
the proposed amendment to the 2022 Electoral Act states: “Election into the
state Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly shall be held not later than
185 days before the date on which each of the Houses stands dissolved.”
In unlocking the constitutional impediments against the
amendment, the joint committees state in the draft copy: “Section 28 now
section 27 ( 5 – 7) was introduced due to the amendments to sections 76, 116,
132 & 178 of the constitution, which seeks to remove the determination of
election timeline from the constitution to the Electoral Act”.
The proposed amendment seeking for conduct of election six
months before expiration of tenure of the incumbent, as explained by the
Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon
Adebayo Balogun, aims at giving enough time for disposal of election
litigations before swearing in of declared winners.
According to him, Section 285 of the 1999 constitution will
be amended just as section 139 will also be amended.
“To ensure that all manner of election litigations are
dispensed with, before the swearing in of winners, we are proposing amendment
that will reduce 180 days of tribunal judgment to 90 days, 90 days expected of
judgment by appellate court to 60 days up to the Supreme Court, which will all
not exceed 185 days”.
Other far reaching amendment proposals being sought by the
joint committees are early voting contained in section (2) of the draft bill.
It states: “There shall be a date set aside for early voting not later than 14
days to the day of the election.”
Categories of Nigerians listed for the pre – poll are
security personnel, officials of the commission, accredited domestic observers,
accredited journalists and ad – hoc staff of the commission.
Other proposed amendments are mandatory electronic
transmission of election results, non-compulsory use of permanent voters’ card
etc. The proposed amendment as contained in Section 60(5) of the Electoral Act
also seeks to ensure compulsory electronic transmission of results.
“The presiding officer shall transmit the results including
total number of accredited voters… electronically and manually just as it
criminalises failure of presiding officer or collation officer who distributes
unstamped ballot papers and results sheets. Such erring officers will be jailed
for one year or pay a fine of N1 million or both.”
All the stakeholders, who made presentations at the public
hearing including representative of the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), Professor Abdullahi Zuru, aligned with the joint committees’
proposals.
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