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Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, SAN, has urged lawmakers to use the ongoing amendment of Nigeria’s Electoral Act to mandate the immediate electronic preservation and public verification of signed polling-unit results, stressing that the reform being sought is not electronic voting but the digital safeguarding of manual results.
Falana spoke at the Technical Expert Meeting on Electoral Act Amendment convened by ActionAid in Abuja on February 13, 2026, where electoral experts, civil society actors and policymakers examined proposals aimed at strengthening transparency in Nigeria’s electoral process.
According to the renowned human rights lawyer, Nigeria currently conducts elections entirely through manual voting, counting and documentation, with results recorded on Form EC8A at polling units. The central issue under debate, he clarified, is whether the scanned copy of the duly completed and signed polling-unit result sheet should be electronically uploaded immediately after counting and signing.
“Nigeria does not operate electronic voting,” Falana said. “Ballots are cast manually. Votes are counted manually. Results are recorded manually on Form EC8A. The debate before the nation is not about transmitting digital votes. It is about whether the scanned copy of the duly completed and signed polling-unit result sheet should be electronically uploaded directly from the polling unit immediately after counting and signing.”
Falana argued that the Electoral Act amendment presents what he described as a “historic opportunity” to consolidate democratic transparency and institutional credibility, particularly in light of the controversy surrounding the real-time electronic transmission of results during recent elections.
He referenced the Supreme Court’s judgment in Atiku Abubakar & Anor v INEC & Ors (2023), which held that electronic transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal is permissible but not mandatory under the Electoral Act 2022. The Court’s interpretation of Sections 60(5) and 64, Falana noted, places responsibility squarely on the National Assembly to make real-time transmission compulsory if that is the legislative intent.
“The Court did not reject electronic transmission as a concept,” he explained. “It merely interpreted the statute as drafted. Where legislation is permissive, courts cannot impose compulsion. If real-time transmission is to be mandatory, the law must state this expressly and unequivocally.”
Falana stressed that the polling unit remains the most transparent stage of the electoral process, with party agents and observers present as votes are counted and results announced. Once the signed Form EC8A leaves the polling unit, he warned, it becomes vulnerable to manipulation or interference, making immediate electronic transmission critical to preserving its integrity.
He dismissed arguments that such transmission amounts to electronic voting, describing them as conceptually flawed. Transmitting a scanned copy of a signed document, he said, is fundamentally different from transmitting digital votes and does not alter Nigeria’s manual voting framework.
Addressing concerns about network connectivity, Falana argued that Nigeria’s expanding telecommunications infrastructure and experience with large-scale digital transactions make real-time uploads feasible. He cited the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which operates offline for accreditation and only requires connectivity at the transmission stage, as previously explained by INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.
Falana also pointed to India’s 2024 general elections—conducted with nearly one billion registered voters—as evidence that large-scale electoral operations can integrate technology without compromising efficiency, noting that results there were collated and announced within 24 hours.
From the Supreme Court ruling, he said, the lesson is that ambiguous statutory drafting invites discretionary compliance. He therefore called for the amended law to specify that presiding officers must electronically transmit the scanned Form EC8A directly from the polling unit immediately after signing and before departure, with clear consequences for non-compliance except in cases of documented force majeure.
“Failure to transmit without documented force majeure should constitute substantial non-compliance,” Falana said, adding that deliberate sabotage should attract sanctions to strengthen institutional trust and reduce post-election litigation.
Summarising the position of reform advocates, Falana declared: “We are not asking for electronic voting at this stage. We are asking that, once votes are counted and signed at the polling unit, the digital record of the signed result be immediately preserved and publicly verifiable. That is not radical. It is responsible governance.”
He cautioned against any retreat from the transparency aspirations of the Electoral Act 2022, warning that weakening its provisions would signal democratic regression, while clarifying and strengthening them would demonstrate institutional maturity.
Falana further noted that transmission reform must be pursued alongside broader electoral reforms, including improvements in party primaries, enforcement of electoral offences, campaign finance regulation and protection of voters from intimidation.
“Transmission reform alone will not cure all systemic weaknesses,” he said. “But strengthening real-time transmission complements these reforms, not competes with them.”
Abuja Network News
