By George Ozalla
Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Femi Falana, SAN, has urged lawmakers to mandate the immediate electronic preservation and public verification of signed polling-unit results as part of the ongoing amendment of Nigeria’s Electoral Act, emphasizing that the reform being sought is not electronic voting but the digital safeguarding of manually recorded results.
Falana made the call 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 reviewed proposals aimed at enhancing transparency in Nigeria’s elections.
According to the human rights lawyer, Nigeria currently conducts elections entirely through manual voting, counting, and documentation, with results recorded on Form EC8A at polling units. The key issue, he explained, is whether a scanned copy of the 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 described the Electoral Act amendment as a “historic opportunity” to consolidate democratic transparency and institutional credibility, particularly given controversies surrounding real-time electronic transmission of results in 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 did not reject electronic transmission as a concept,” Falana 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 claims that such transmission amounts to electronic voting, noting that transmitting a scanned copy of a signed document does not alter Nigeria’s manual voting system. Addressing concerns about network connectivity, Falana argued that Nigeria’s telecommunications infrastructure and experience with large-scale digital transactions make real-time uploads feasible. He cited the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which operates offline for accreditation and requires connectivity only at the transmission stage, as previously explained by INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.
Falana also highlighted India’s 2024 general elections, conducted with nearly one billion registered voters, as evidence that technology can be integrated into large-scale electoral operations 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 require presiding officers to electronically transmit the scanned Form EC8A directly from the polling unit immediately after signing, 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.
Summarizing the position of reform advocates, he 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.”
Falana 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. He also noted that transmission reform must be pursued alongside broader electoral reforms, including improvements in party primaries, enforcement of electoral offences, regulation of campaign financing, 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.”
