Members of the Joint National Assembly Conference Committee, tasked with reconciling differences in the Electoral Amendment Bill passed separately by the Senate and the House of Representatives, are expected to meet on Monday to finalise a harmonised version for transmission to President Bola Tinubu for assent.
The PUNCH reports that the joint committee, comprising members from both chambers, has been given a one-week window to resolve contentious provisions, particularly those related to the electronic transmission of election results.
The harmonisation follows the passage of divergent versions by the Senate and House, especially regarding the role of technology in collation and transmission of results. Under legislative procedure, when both chambers pass differing texts of the same bill, a conference committee is convened to produce a single version acceptable to both sides before submission to the President.
This amendment process comes in the wake of controversies during the 2023 general election, notably the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) failure to upload presidential election results in real time to its Result Viewing Portal. Civil society groups, opposition parties, and lawmakers have since called for clearer legal provisions on electronic transmission to enhance transparency and public confidence ahead of the 2027 elections.
While many lawmakers have remained non-committal on the likely outcome of the harmonisation, some privately indicated keen interest in the committee’s decisions on disputed clauses. A National Assembly source confirmed that the exercise will begin on Monday.
“It is taking place on Monday,” the source said via WhatsApp.
Senator Seriake Dickson, representing Bayelsa West, told The PUNCH that Monday was a likely date for the harmonisation, adding:
“I don’t know the actual date since I am not a member of the Conference Committee. But we are hoping it may take place next Monday.”
Efforts to obtain comments from Senate spokesperson Yemi Adaramodu and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Niyi Adegbonmire, were unsuccessful.
The development has drawn heightened public interest due to disagreements over electronic transmission provisions. Dickson, speaking in Abuja, urged the Conference Committee to adopt the version passed by the House entirely, warning that weakening the electronic transmission clause could undermine public trust.
This statement followed the Senate’s reversal of an earlier position, restoring the electronic transmission of election results to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV), while maintaining manual collation as a fallback in case of technological failure.
