President Bola Tinubu has signed the Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment) Bill into law, days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) unveiled its roadmap for the 2027 general election.
The assent took place at the State House, Abuja, at about 5:00 pm on Wednesday, with leaders of the national assembly in attendance.
Lawmakers had fast-tracked the passage of the bill on Tuesday.
The signing comes amid intense public debate over the inclusion of a provision on real-time electronic transmission of polling unit results to INEC’s servers — a measure widely pushed by civil society groups as critical to reducing vote manipulation.
Last week, civil society organisations and opposition figures staged protests at the National Assembly, calling on lawmakers to make live electronic upload of results mandatory to strengthen public trust in the electoral process.
However, leaders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) argued that weak and uneven internet connectivity in many rural communities makes full real-time transmission impractical and instead advocated a hybrid system combining electronic and manual procedures.
