Ahead of the 2027 general election, the Senate and the House of Representatives have proposed that the presidential and gubernatorial elections be conducted in November 2026 as against February or March of the election year.
The proposal, contained in the draft copy of various amendments being sought in the 2022 Electoral Act, sought for the elections into the two offices to be conducted not later than 185 days before expiration of tenure of the incumbent which is May 29.
The proposed amendments which came to the fore on Monday, during a one day Public hearing held by the joint committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives on Electoral Matters, also contained other far reaching amendment proposals.
This is even as many of the stakeholders who made presentations at the public hearing, demanded for electronic voting and transmission of election results.
“Section 4 (7) of the proposed amendment states Elections into the office of the President and Governor of a State shall be held not later than 185 days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of the office.
“Calculation of the 185 days before May 29, 2027 clearly shows that the election must be conducted in November 2026, since the number of days from May 28, 2027 to December 1st 2026 are 180 days.
“For the federal and state of legislators, Section 4(5) of the proposed amendment to the 2022 electoral act states ” Election into the State Houses of Assembly and the National Assembly shall be held not later than 185 days before the date on which each of the Houses stands dissolved,” the document said.
In unlocking the constitutional impediments against the amendment, the joint committee states in the draft copy “:section 28 now section 27 ( 5 – 7) was introduced due to the amendments to sections 76, 116, 132 & 178 of the Constitution, which seeks to remove the determination of election timeline from the constitution to the Electoral Act.”
The proposed amendment seeking for conduct of election six months before expiration of tenure of incumbent, as explained by the Chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon Adebayo Balogun, aims at giving enough time for disposal of election litigation before swearing in of declared winners.
According to him, section 285 of the 1999 Constitution will be amended just as section 139 will also be amended.
“To ensure that all manner of election litigations are dispensed with, before the swearing in of winners ,we are proposing amendment that will reduce 180 days of tribunal judgement to 90 days , 90 days expected of Judgement by appellate court to 60 days up to the Supreme court , which will all not exceed 185 days.”
Other far reaching amendment proposals being sought for by the joint committee, are early voting contained in section(2) of the draft bill.
It states : “There shall be a date set aside for early voting not later than 14 days to the day of the election.
Categories of Nigerians listed for the pre – poll are security personnel, officials of the commission, accredited domestic observers , accredited journalists and ad – hoc staff of the commission.
Other proposed amendments are mandatory electronic transmission of election results , non – compulsory use of permanent voters card etc.
The proposed amendment as contained in Section 60(5) of the Electoral Act also seeks to ensure compulsory electronic transmission of results.
“The Presiding Officer shall transmit the results including total number of accredited voters to the next level of excuses both electronically and manually just as it criminalises failure of Presiding Officer or Collation Officer who distribute unstamped ballot papers and results sheets. Such erring officers will be jailed for one year or pay a fine of N1m or both.
All the stakeholders, who made presentations at the public hearing, including representative of the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC, Professor Abdullahi Zuru, aligned with the joint committee’s proposals.
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