President Bola Tinubu has signed the amended Electoral Act into law, putting in place the legal framework that will govern the conduct of the 2027 general elections amid lingering controversy over how election results will be transmitted.
The president signed the bill on Wednesday, February 18, evening at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, barely 24 hours after the National Assembly passed it.
Principal officers of both chambers were present at the ceremony.
The new law permits the electronic transmission of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal but does not make it mandatory or require that uploads happen in real time.
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Manual collation remains an option where technology fails, a provision that has drawn strong criticism from transparency advocates.
The amendment caps weeks of heated debate that divided lawmakers, civil society groups, and the general public.
At the heart of the controversy was the question of whether results should be transmitted electronically in real time from polling units, a measure many Nigerians viewed as critical to preventing manipulation.