The Senate yesterday  amended Clause 28 of the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, reducing the statutory notice period for general elections from 360 days to 300 days to prevent the 2027 polls from coinciding with the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The amendment followed a motion for rescission moved by Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, who argued that retaining the 360-day notice requirement could compel the Independent National Electoral Commission to schedule the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections during Ramadan.

According to Bamidele, a critical review of the earlier passed version of the bill showed that the extended notice timeline might inadvertently fix the elections within a sensitive religious period, potentially affecting voter turnout, logistics, stakeholder participation, and overall electoral credibility.

The upper chamber rescinded its earlier decision and recommitted the bill to the Committee of the Whole, where it adopted the revised provision mandating INEC to publish election notices not later than 300 days before the date appointed for an election.

INEC had already fixed February 20, 2027, for the presidential and National Assembly elections and March 6, 2027, for governorship and state assembly polls. Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Simon Lalong, clarified that the current INEC leadership did not deliberately align the dates with Ramadan, noting that the election timetable template from 2019 to 2031 was established under former INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu.

Beyond the timeline adjustment, the Senate also retained a contentious proviso in Clause 60 allowing manual transmission of election results where electronic transmission fails due to network challenges.

Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe raised a point of order and demanded a division on Clause 60(3), objecting to the retention of the manual transmission fallback. However, following a voice vote and physical count directed by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, 55 senators voted in favour of retaining the proviso, while 15 opposed it.

Declaring the outcome, Akpabio said those who supported the clause “had just saved Nigeria’s democracy,” reinforcing the chamber’s position that while electronic transmission remains permissible, the duly signed Form EC8A will serve as the primary source of results in the event of network failure.

The Senate subsequently passed the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, as amended.

The development sets the stage for potential adjustments to the 2027 election timetable, pending concurrence by the House of Representatives and presidential assent, as debate over the balance between technological reforms and practical contingencies continues to shape Nigeria’s electoral framework.