The Movement for Credible Elections (MCE), a coalition leading political activists in Nigeria, has kicked against the decision of the Senate to remove the mandatory real time electronic transmission of election results as proposed in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026.
The coalition considers the action of the lawmakers as a direct assault democracy, stressing that it is an attempt by the National Assembly to subvert the right of Nigerians to freely choose their leaders in a free, fair and transparent election.
In a statement released by the MCE on Saturday , the coalition stated that by rejecting the mandatory transmission of election results from the polling units and other critical clauses, the National Assembly has chosen opacity over transparency, manipulation over credibility, and elite conspiracy over the sovereign will of the people.
“This is not lawmaking, it is deliberate democratic sabotage against the aspiration of the people of our country as mandatory electronic transmission of results is not controversial.
“It is a minimum safeguard against result tampering, ballot rewriting, and post-election fraud.
“Any legislature that blocks it is openly defending a system that thrives on electoral corruption, stolen mandates and manufactured elections,” the group said..
MCE argued that there is no acceptable justification for rejecting mandatory real time Electronic transmission of results except for the fear of the genuine votes and mandate of the electorate.
In the statement signed by it’s Media Coordibator, Comrade James Ezema , the MCE said the implication of the action of the lawmakers is that the status quo where election results are subjected to to manipulation between polling units and collation centres will remain and be exploited in 2027.
“If we fail to provide the transparency desired by Nigerians, apathy will grow and this in turn will undermine public confidence in elections with citizen choosing to express their votes in other ways.
“Not only has the failure of transparent elections outcomes rewarded impunity and electoral fraud, it has enabled the courts to become the tool of mandate purchase by the highest bidders and appendage of the executive, not independently working to entrench the rule of law.
“Elite state capture has become the order of the day in Nigeria, where impunity and oppression reigns.
“This anti democratic action of the lawmakers shows an unwillingness to submit themselves to transparent competition in desperate bid to be beneficiaries of the corrupt systems enthroned since 1999.
“This decision confirms what Nigerians already know that the Nigerian political class are afraid of technological transparency because it exposes their shaddy and corrupt dealings during elections,” the group said.
The MCE which described itself as a non- partisan citizens movement seeking the enthronement of credible elections in Nigeria, said all Nigerians are united by one simple principle – that every vote must count and be protected.
The group charged the National Assembly to immediately reinstate and pass the mandatory electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026.
In addition to mandatory transmission of results, the group insists , the results transmitted electronically must be in sync with the documentation at the polling unit.
“There should be the Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) as is the practice in India because Democracy dies when votes are allowed to be stolen. It time to end electoral rigging in Nigeria,” Ezema said.
In the meantime, the MCE has called on all its partners and allies to join the Occupy NASS Mass Protest scheduled to hold on Monday, February 9, 2026.
It also urged all its allies not to accept any attempt to rollback the planned mass protest but to mobilize and proceed peacefully on the civic action to defend the popular yearnings of Nigerians in resisting any attempt to return Nigeria to the dark days of manual manipulation, backroom results occasioned by glitches and interferences with the will of the electorate.
