The Federal Government of Nigeria has enacted the Electoral Act 2026, in order to transform the protocol for electronic voting failures, which was signed into law by President Bola Tinubu in February 2026.
The 2026 Act serves as a response to the logistical and technological challenges of the 2023 general elections. During that cycle, BVAS malfunctions, including dead batteries and server connectivity issues, led to the disenfranchisement of voters in several states.
The Act, specifically, Section 47(3), stipulated that if an accreditation device fails and a replacement is not deployed, the election in that specific polling unit must be cancelled and a fresh poll conducted within 24 hours.
If a device failure occurs and impacts the final result of any constituency, INEC must schedule a new election within 24 hours. This replaces the previous practice of scheduling supplementary elections weeks later.
Section 47(2) also grants full permission to use the BVAS or an equivalent technological device for all voter accreditations, thereby removing the previous discretion of INEC to revert to manual registers.
The Senate believes that the 24-hour timeline prevents result engineering that often occurs during long delays;
“The Electoral Act 2026… seeks to enhance electoral credibility, reduce disputes, and ensure that economic or administrative hurdles do not compromise the will of the people” – Opeyemi Bamidele (Senate Leader)
Meanwhile, Section 60(6) introduces new penalties, which include a ₦500,000 fine or six months’ imprisonment, for any presiding officer who willfully frustrates the electronic transmission of results.
