Electoral Act: Conference Committee Shifts Meeting To Night Over Absence Of Reps

The meeting of the Conference Committee of the Senate and the House of Representatives on the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, was abruptly shifted to late night following the failure of members of the House to formally sit and deliberate ahead of today’s plenary.

Naija News reports that the development comes amid mounting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that electronic transmission of results ahead of the February 20, 2027, general elections is seamless, transparent and legally unassailable, unlike the controversy that trailed the 2023 presidential poll.

It was gathered that the meeting, earlier fixed for 11 am, could not proceed due to the absence of key members, particularly from the House of Representatives.

A highly placed member of the committee told Vanguard, “How can there be a conclusion when the meeting failed to hold?”

The lawmaker declined further comments as members present eventually dispersed from the venue.

Sources said some senators arrived at the scheduled time and waited, but no member of the House committee showed up.

However, the two chairmen of the Electoral Committees, Simon Lalong for the Senate and Adebayo Balogun for the House, were present.

After waiting for several minutes, the senators reportedly moved to Lalong’s office and, about 20 minutes later, reconvened and agreed to reschedule the meeting for 3 pm.

By 3:30 pm, some senators, including Jibrin Isah, Abba Moro and Tahir Monguno, were seated, but there was still no member of the House at the venue. At about 4pm, Lalong arrived and was later joined by Balogun, with no other House committee members present.

The two leaders briefly held a closed-door discussion lasting about 10 minutes before dispersing, effectively ending the day without any harmonised position.

Night Meeting At Senate President’s Lodge

A source disclosed that following the failed sitting, a night meeting was convened outside the National Assembly complex at the Senate President’s Lodge in Maitama in a last-minute effort to align positions before today’s plenary.

The harmonisation panel is expected to reconcile differences on about 20 clauses, as well as the explanatory memorandum and the long title of the bill.

The most contentious provision remains Clause 60(3), which deals with the electronic transmission of election results.

The Senate had earlier approved electronic transmission but deleted the phrase “real-time” and allowed manual collation through Form EC8A, where communication fails, while the House version insists on mandatory real-time electronic transmission to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal.