It was a shouting match in the House of Representatives on Tuesday as lawmakers clashed over a controversial move to rescind the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Members went haywire during plenary when Francis Waive, Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, moved a motion seeking to reverse the bill earlier passed on December 23, 2025.
When Speaker Tajudeen Abbas put the motion to a voice vote, the chamber thundered with “nays” louder than the “ayes.”
But in a move that stunned many lawmakers, Abbas ruled that the “ayes” had it.
Angry lawmakers erupted in protest, shouting objections across the chamber. The atmosphere quickly turned rowdy as members openly challenged the Speaker’s ruling.
In a bid to restore order, Abbas called for an executive session, but even that suggestion was resisted.
Despite the pushback, the Speaker forced the House into a closed-door session.
At the heart of the uproar is the controversial clause on electronic transmission of election results. When the Green Chamber passed the amendment in December, it approved mandatory real-time transmission of polling unit results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
The adopted provision states that the “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”.
Earlier this month, the Senate passed its version of the amendment but initially rejected real-time electronic transmission — sparking outrage and nationwide criticism.
In a dramatic twist on Tuesday, the upper chamber reversed itself and approved electronic transmission to IReV, adding that manual collation would serve as a fallback if technology fails.
With both chambers now holding differing versions of key provisions, a conference committee has been constituted to harmonise the bill.
Civil society groups are mounting pressure on the National Assembly to retain the House’s stronger electronic transmission clause, warning that any dilution could undermine electoral transparency.
