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The Senate on Thursday constituted an ad-hoc panel to work with its Committee on Judiciary and Legal Matters to re-examine contentious provisions in the report on amendments to the Electoral Act 2022.

The Judiciary and Legal Matters Committee is chaired by Senator Adeniyi Adegbonmire while the original report under review was prepared by the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters led by Senator Simon Lalong.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced the decision after lawmakers emerged from a three-hour closed-door session where they undertook an extensive review of the Lalong committee’s report.

The report had initially been scheduled for debate on Wednesday, but deliberation was stepped down due to the absence of the committee chairman, Lalong, a former governor of Plateau State.

At the close of plenary on Wednesday, Akpabio informed senators that copies of the report would be circulated to enable them study it ahead of deliberations the following day.

However, proceedings took a different turn at the start of plenary on Thursday when the Senate President called for an executive session to allow members discuss the document privately.

Briefing senators after the closed session, Akpabio said the report would undergo further scrutiny to harmonise differing views and address grey areas identified during the deliberations.

He disclosed that the newly constituted adhoc panel would sit for 48 hours and present its recommendations on the third legislative day for consideration at plenary.

Members of the panel, drawn from ranking senators, include Adamu Aliero, Aminu Tambuwal, Adams Oshiomhole, Danjuma Goje, Tony Nwoye and Titus Zam. The Clerk to the Senate, Emmanuel Odo, would serve as secretary to the panel.

Following the announcement, the Senate adjourned plenary till Tuesday next week to await the panel’s report.

Meanwhile, a copy of the report obtained by The Nation shows that top on the amendments to be considered by the Adhoc committee is the provision for the electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission Results Viewing Portal (IREV) after collation.

One of the major proposals in the report is a provision mandating the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit results from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) immediately after vote counting.

Also a new clause  3 has been introduced on page 45 of the Electoral Act 2022 (Amendment) Bill, 2025, aimed at curbing result manipulation and ballot box snatching.

The proposed provision states: “INEC shall electronically transmit election results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, and such transmission shall be done simultaneously with the physical collation of results.”

The committee further introduced a new subsection (2) to clause 71, making it an offence for presiding officers to fail to sign and stamp ballot papers and the results announced by them.

In addition, clauses 47(2) and (3) were amended to replace the term “smart card reader” with “Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS),” in line with current electoral practice.

To address abuse of the voting process involving persons with disabilities, the report amended Clause 54(1) to bar political party agents, candidates or officials from accompanying visually impaired or incapacitated voters into the voting compartment.

The committee also recommended stiffer penalties for vote trading or the buying and selling of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs), proposing an increase in the fine prescribed in clause 22 from N500,000 to N5 million.

On page 9 of the report, clause 10 of the Bill was amended for inclusion of new paragraph “(c) National Identification Number (NIN)” to check registration of illegal immigrants in the continuous voter registration exercise.

On submission of list candidates and their affidavits by political parties, Clause 29 on page 27 of the report was amended with the inclusion of sub clause

(7) and (9) as follows:

“(7) Notwithstanding the provisions of subclause (6), where the election has been held, the court shall direct the Commission to declare the candidate with the second highest number of valid votes who satisfies the constitutional requirement, as the winner of the election.

“(9) A candidate who does not meet the qualification stipulated in this clause, and presents himself to a political party, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N5,000,000.

Clause 31 on withdrawal of candidate contained in page 29, was amended by the redraft of the entire provision to ensure that withdrawal of candidates is done with sworn affidavit in order to check arbitrariness.

On format of ballot papers contained in page 35, clause  42 (3) was amended by increasing the number of days within which a party is expected to inspect its identity appearing on samples of relevant electoral materials proposed for an election from 20 days to 60 days.

On the provision for Polling Agents in page 36, clause 43 now 42 was amended to give candidates power to nominate polling agents: “Each candidate in consultation with his political party may, by notice in writing addressed to the Resident Electoral Commissioner of the state, appoint a polling agent for each polling unit and collation centre in the Local Government Area or Area Council for which it has candidate and the notice.”

On post-election procedure and collation of election results new subclauses (3) – (9) were introduced to ensure the credibility of collation of results.

Also decision of returning officer on ballot paper/declaration and return of candidate, the marginal note of clause 65 was amended and subclause (2) was substituted with new provisions.

For political parties to be bodies corporate, a new subclauses (2) –  (7) were introduced to section 77 to ensure that proper records of memberships of political parties are kept.

Also on notice of convention and congress contained on

page 65, Clause 82(2) was amended to make notices very specific.

“The notice shall specify the date, time, venue and names of the members of the congress, convention or conference committee as spelt out in the party’s constitution,” the committee said.

On indirect primaries, new subclauses (2) – (9) were introduced to Clause 87 in order to ensure that all the political actors participate in the nominations of candidates, in line with global standards.

The committee recommended that political appointees will not be eligible as a voting delegate or aspirant in Clause  89 (3) and (4).

Sub Clause (3) was repealed to say “where court finds that a political party failed to comply with the provisions of this Bill in the conduct of its primaries, its candidate for election shall not be included in the election for the particular position in issue.

Subsection (4) was also repealed to say, “A person that financially or materially induces a delegate for the purpose of influencing the conventions commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment to a term of two years without an option of fine.”

On limit of election expenses

Clause 93 was amended by increasing expenses to be incurred while vying for different electoral positions and by placing a limit on such expenses.

Also Clause 94 was amended to control election expenses of political parties.

In addition, on offences in respect of nomination contained in Clause 120 (2) on page 115, the punishment for the offences of nomination has been increased from N50,000,000 to N75,000,000 to deter perpetrators.