BREAKING: Senate passes electoral bill after consideration and approval of 155 clauses

The Senate, in passing the bill, also made amendments to a number of the clauses, with the majority of clauses retained as proposed. One of the amendments was the reduction of the timeline for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish the notice of election from 360 days to 180 days.

The Senate, however, rejected real-time electronic transmission of election results from polling units to the IReV portal, instead opting to retain the provision in Clause 60 of 2022 Electoral Act, which allows election results to be transmitted in a manner prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Additionally, the Senate, in its clause-by-clause consideration of the bill, retained the permanent voter card (PVC) as the sole means of voter accreditation, rejecting electronic or alternative identification proposed in Clause 47.