A former presidential candidate of the National Conscience Party (NCP), Martin Onovo,  said Nigeria has missed an opportunity to restore confidence in the electoral system following Senate’s rejection of  electronic transmission of election results.

The Senate on Wednesday passed the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026 after the third reading.

The upper legislative chamber, however, rejected a proposed amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3 of the bill, which sought to make the electronic transmission of election results mandatory.

Lawmakers opposed to the proposal, citing  technical and logistical concerns around its implementation nationwide

Reacting, Mr Onovo, an activist and Head of Policy Positions at the Movement for Fundamental Change, said that the decision was not good for the electoral process and democracy.

He said, “We have lost another opportunity to restore confidence in Nigeria’s electoral system. The rejection of electronic transmission in real time is simply to allow the writing of false election results.”

He stated that the Senate’s stance had reinforced the doubts of  many Nigerians about the credibility of  elections.

According to him, the development has validated citizen’s reservations about the integrity of the electoral process.

“Some of us on this side already knew that the current National Assembly and its leadership would not allow this to pass. This  is not acceptable to the people of Nigeria. This cannot be acceptable to election monitoring groups as well as local and foreign observers.

“This position cannot also be acceptable to the civil society organisations and most of the critical stakeholders in electoral matters,” Mr Onovo said.

The former presidential candidate said the lawmakers would have earned public trust had they aligned with the popular demand for technology-driven transparency.

“The National Assembly would have written its name in gold if it had allowed  e-transmission of election results” he said.

He warned that continued resistance to reforms aimed at strengthening transparency would discourage citizens from participating in future elections.

“Nigerian people are losing interest in the electoral process because they do not believe votes count. Many of them stay away from the process and we keep complaining about apathy. It is sad that the Senate has again rejected the amendment that would have restored confidence in the process,” he added.

Mr Onovo added that the country already possessed the capacity to deploy credible technology for elections, but lacked the political will.

“We are ripe for this and we have the technology to make this happen but for politics, we want to keep the nation backward,” he noted.

He urged the National Assembly to always consider reforms that could enhance transparency and build public trust in the electoral system. 

(NAN)