Tinubu’s Approval of Electoral Act Amendment Was Foreseen — Umeh

The senator representing Anambra Central, Victor Umeh, has said President Bola Tinubu’s decision to sign the amended Electoral Act into law came as no surprise, noting that developments during the legislative process made the outcome predictable.

Speaking during an interview on Channels Television, Umeh explained that debates within both chambers of the legislature indicated early on that the bill would receive presidential assent.

He traced the controversy surrounding the amendment to the issue of electronic transmission of election results. According to him, the previous electoral law did not explicitly mandate electronic transmission but allowed the electoral commission to determine the method of result transfer.

Although electronic transmission was adopted in practice during the last general election, disputes over alleged glitches and result uploads triggered legal battles that eventually reached the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

Umeh said the court ruled that the law at the time did not expressly recognise electronic transmission, prompting lawmakers to amend the Act to give the process a clearer statutory foundation.

He recalled that the Senate initially adopted language similar to the earlier law, while the House of Representatives proposed making electronic transmission compulsory. Differences emerged when the Senate removed the mandatory clause and reverted to broader wording, a move that drew criticism from some lawmakers.

Although the provision was later restored, a caveat allowing exceptions in cases of communication failure was inserted — a compromise Umeh warned could undermine the effectiveness of the reform by leaving room for manipulation.