Electoral Act: Future Elections Should Be Better Than Previous Ones — PDP Spokesman

The National Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ini Ememobong, has said that future elections in Nigeria should be better than previous ones.

Ememobong made the remark on Thursday during an interview on Channels Television’s The Morning Brief.

He said only 26 per cent of registered voters participated in the last election, a development he described as evidence of significant voter apathy.

According to him, “The idea of democratic consolidation means that every election, every future election, should be better than the previous one in every material respect.”

He noted that the Supreme Court, in its judgment, had identified lacuna in the electoral process and returned the matter to the National Assembly, stressing that it was now the primary duty of lawmakers to legislate appropriately for the administration of the country.

“If the Supreme Court in its judgment has identified the lacuna and passed the ball back to the National Assembly, the most primary duty is to legislate for the administration of this country,” he said.

His comments followed a proposed bill by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) seeking to mandate the electronic transmission of election results.

Ememobong warned against taking Nigerians for granted, describing them as patient people whose tolerance should not be abused.

“Nigerians are very patient people. You push them to the wall, they begin to make a hole in the wall, but somehow their minds change and you find them coming out straight for you. It happened during the End SARS,” he said.

He appealed to legislators and the political class to take the issue seriously, describing the proposed amendment as one Nigerians have been waiting for.

READ ALSO: [Electoral Act] Why Senate Rejected Proposal For Real-Time Upload Of Results — Itodo

“My appeal is that the legislators, and in fact the entire political class, should not take Nigerians for granted. This is the one bill, law and Act Nigerians have been waiting for in this period,” he said.

Speaking further, Ememobong warned that sustained disregard for electoral integrity could have grave consequences.

“If Nigerians are pushed to the point where there is a mass protest, I’m not sure when a mass protest over lack of electoral sanctity aligns with insecurity and hunger, there will be a conflagration that will be beyond the capacity of any government and security agencies to contain,” he said.

The proposed bill was supposed to allow the electronic transmission of election results from each polling unit to the IREV portal in real time, after the prescribed Form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and countersigned by candidates.

But in passing the Electoral Act 2022 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Amendment Bill 2026 on Wednesday, the Senate did not approve the proposed amendment to Clause 60, Subsection 3, which sought to make the electronic transmission of election results mandatory.

Instead, the Senate adopted the existing provision of the Electoral Act, which states that “the presiding officer shall transfer the results, including the total number of accredited voters and the results of the ballot, in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.”