The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has issued a strong warning that it may embark on nationwide mass action or boycott future elections if the amendment of the Electoral Act 2022 fails to mandate the real-time electronic transmission and collation of election results.
In a statement on Sunday, NLC President Joe Ajaero said the amended law must clearly and unequivocally compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to transmit results electronically from polling units in real time, warning that any ambiguity would further erode public confidence in Nigeria’s electoral system.
The warning followed the Senate’s rejection on February 4 of a proposal seeking to make real-time electronic transmission of results compulsory during deliberations on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2026.
Although the Senate retained provisions on electronic transmission contained in the Electoral Act, 2022, the existing law does not legally bind INEC to transmit results in real time. As a result, manual transmission and collation remain the dominant practice, despite the deployment of INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
The rejected amendment had sought to make electronic transmission mandatory, ensure real-time uploads, and link the process directly to IReV. The decision has since triggered public outrage and deepened mistrust in the electoral process.
