Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, former minister of Aviation, Rotimi Amaechi and former governor Nasir el-Rufai of Kaduna State have condemned the Senate for passing the manual transmission clause as the National Assembly amends the Electoral Act towards the 2027 general elections.
Atiku told a press conference in Minna, Niger State, that the current mixture of electronic and manual transmissions would pose challenges for voters and electoral officials.
Atiku was in Minna where he and former Military President General Ibrahim Babangida had a closed-door meeting.
According to Atiku, “the expectations of Nigerians are real-time electronic transfer to the various levels of the elections, but what we got is a mixture of electronic and manual transmission, which is going to cause more confusion or chaos than if we had a single-tier, you know, electoral transmission system.
“Real-time electronic transmission is our preference. And I think there is a need for all the opposition political parties to come together to pursue this issue,” he said.
Atiku said the Senate’s adoption of the amended Clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act—which allows electronic transmission of results while keeping manual collation as a backup—was a compromise that falls short of full transparency.
“I mean; we shouldn’t allow it to rest where they wanted it to rest today. Absolutely not. I don’t support that,” he added.
Former Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi who joined Tuesday’s protesters at the National Assembly, said that real-time transmission could save lives.
The former minister said the proposed amendment to the Electoral Act explicitly requires the Independent National Electoral Commission to transmit results electronically in real time from polling units.
“The advantage is that very few people will die on the election field, very few Nigerians. You are saving the lives of Nigerians,” Amaechi told the crowd, warning that every election season sees citizens killed in large numbers while officials shield themselves behind security forces.
“If you think they won’t rig, you’re wasting time. To stop them from rigging, we must come out in large numbers. We must mobilise to march for the people. When they see the number of people who have come out, they will join,” he added.
Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, who appeared on Trust TV on Monday, criticized the Senate for altering provisions on the electronic transmission of election results in the proposed Electoral Act amendments, stressing that real-time transmission is critical to preventing manipulation.
He said the foot-dragging and resistance by the senators are politically motivated and designed to preserve electoral advantages.
“It’s unfortunate I have not been able to return to Nigeria, I would have joined Mr Peter Obi and other party leaders in protesting to the National Assembly to restore the real-time and mandatory transmission of results from the polling unit,” el-Rufai said.
El-Rufai said adopting real-time electronic transmission would significantly reduce rigging and improve the credibility of elections, just as he accused the All Progressives Congress (APC) of opposing the measure for survival reasons.
He said the House of Representatives had aligned with the reform only for the Senate to fail to fully embrace it.
