The House of Representatives was in a rowdy session on Tuesday as lawmakers disagreed over a motion seeking to rescind the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which contained real-time electronic transmission of results.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Rules and Business, Francis Waive, had moved a motion for the House to rescind its decision on the bill, which was passed on December 23, in line with the Senate’s position on real-time electronic transmission of election results.
When the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, put the motion to a voice vote, the “nays” were louder than the “ayes”, but he ruled that the ayes had it.
The ruling triggered protests from lawmakers, who began shouting in objection, prompting the speaker to call for an executive session.
When the House of Representatives passed the Electoral Act in December 2025, it adopted the compulsory real-time transmission of election results to IReV.
The clause it approved said, “presiding officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the IReV portal in real time, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed form EC8A has been signed and stamped by the presiding officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or polling unit agents, where available at the polling unit”.
However, when the Red Chamber passed its version of the bill, the senators rejected the proposal for the real-time transmission of election results.
The move drew backlash and protests with calls on the senators to rescind the decision. Last Tuesday, the Senate reversed its earlier stance and approved the electronic transmission of election results to IReV. But it added a manual collation option in case of technological failure.
Both the Senate and House of Representatives set up a joint conference committee to harmonise the versions of the bills passed by the upper and lower chambers.
Opposition parties are asking the National Assembly to adopt the House of Representatives version, which includes the “real-time” clause.