PDP Faults Senate’s Manual Result Backup Clause

The Peoples Democratic Party has criticised the Senate over the inclusion of a manual result transmission option in the amended Electoral Act, warning that the decision could weaken efforts to improve Nigeria’s electoral process.

The party reacted after the Senate approved electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal but allowed manual collation to be used where electronic transmission fails.

The decision followed an emergency plenary session held to review a disputed clause in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill after protests from opposition leaders and concerned citizens.

In a statement released on Tuesday by its National Publicity Secretary, Ini Ememobong, the PDP questioned the logic behind allowing manual transmission when the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System is already used successfully for voter accreditation during elections.

The party argued that it was difficult to accept that the same technology would work well for accreditation but suddenly become unreliable for transmitting results.

The PDP said manual result collation is already provided for in the existing Electoral Act and insisted that the push for electronic transmission is meant to create an added layer of protection against the alteration of results before they reach collation centres.

According to the party, such alterations have been a major problem in past elections.

The opposition party described the Senate’s decision as incomplete and urged the Conference Committee to adopt the version of the bill passed by the House of Representatives as the final position.

It said this would better support credible elections ahead of the 2027 general polls.
The PDP also warned that political interests should not be placed above the country’s democratic future. It called on lawmakers to focus on protecting the electoral system rather than personal or party ambitions.

The party further appealed to Nigerians to continue demanding full electronic transmission of election results, stating that democracy should not be left solely in the hands of politicians and that public pressure remains necessary to safeguard the electoral process.