Opposition lawmakers on Tuesday staged a dramatic walkout from plenary in the House of Representatives after the chamber refused to delete a controversial manual collation fallback clause in the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act.

The protest followed a heated debate over Section 60(3) of the proposed amendment, which mandates presiding officers to electronically transmit polling unit results to the Independent National Electoral Commission Result Viewing Portal (IReV) after signing and stamping Form EC8A.

While the clause strengthens electronic transmission, it also provides that where transmission fails due to communication challenges, the manually signed Form EC8A will serve as the primary basis for collation and declaration of results — a provision that sparked fierce resistance from opposition members.

The minority caucus argued that retaining manual collation as a fallback creates loopholes that could be exploited to manipulate results, especially ahead of the 2027 general elections. They insisted that electronic transmission should be mandatory and decisive in all circumstances.

However, their proposed amendments — including deleting the fallback clause and making electronically transmitted results prevail in cases of conflict — were defeated through voice votes presided over by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu, who chaired the Committee of the Whole.

Tensions had earlier escalated when Speaker Tajudeen Abbas ruled in favour of the “ayes” during a voice vote on a motion to rescind the House’s earlier decision on the bill passed in December, despite loud objections from dissenting lawmakers who claimed the “nays” were louder.

An attempt to move into executive session was initially resisted before the House eventually went into a closed-door meeting that lasted about two hours. Upon resumption, fresh protests erupted when clauses one to 10 were taken together instead of being subjected to clause-by-clause scrutiny. Lawmakers also complained that copies of the amended bill were not circulated ahead of deliberations.

Following the rejection of all proposed changes to Section 60, opposition lawmakers walked out in protest, describing the process as rushed and lacking transparency.

Despite the walkout, the House proceeded to adopt other key amendments, including reducing the timeline for INEC to issue notice of election from 360 days to 300 days before polling and amending Section 84 to restrict political parties’ nomination methods to direct primaries and consensus, effectively scrapping indirect primaries.

The development mirrors similar divisions in the Senate, which had initially rejected mandatory real-time electronic transmission before later approving it with manual collation as a backup.

With sharp disagreements persisting across both chambers, the amendment process has reignited nationwide debate over the credibility of Nigeria’s electoral framework, as civil society groups warn that any ambiguity in the law could erode public confidence ahead of 2027.