Premium News
The National Assembly today passed the Electoral Amendment (Repeal) Act 2026 and one of its contentious issues has been Clause 60(3). Whilst protests and pressure from Civil Society Organisations and the opposition pursued a mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results, the ruling party stood its ground for a manual transmission as the primary collation process when the network fails; as they say in a democracy, the minority will have their say, and the majority will have their way.
However, a section that slipped past is a repeal of Section 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2022:
The procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective positions shall be by direct, indirect primaries or consensus.
The recent amendment if signed by the President allows political parties to nominate candidates seeking election only through the direct primary and consensus modes.
The direct primary involves voting by all registered members of the Party at the Ward level and thereafter a Special Convention or Congress held at designated centres to ratify the number of votes as per winners.
The APC used this method in 2018/19 (Buhari), Edo, Lagos and some other States.
The indirect Primary has been the choice of the Peoples Democratic Party in majority of its internal elections since 1999, where delegates are elected at different levels then a Special Convention is held where actual voting for the candidate takes place to determine the candidate.
The consensus mode demands that all cleared aspirants will voluntarily enter into writing their withdrawal letters indicating whom they intend to support or endorse.
The APC used this method in the recent Ekiti and Osun Guber Primaries.
