FORMER Vice President Atiku Abubakar has accused the Senate of deliberately frustrating efforts to amend the Electoral Act 2022, warning that continued delays could seriously undermine the credibility of the 2027 general elections.
Atiku, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), raised the alarm in a statement shared on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle on Thursday sighted by News Point Nigeria, where he described the existing Electoral Act as deeply flawed and partly responsible for the controversies that trailed the last general elections.
According to Atiku, weaknesses in the Electoral Act 2022 created room for widespread electoral malpractice during the 2023 polls and made it extremely difficult for aggrieved candidates to successfully challenge results in court.
“A major setback to the 2023 elections is the loopholes in the Electoral Act 2022 that paved the way for the brazen rigging of that election, and the near-impossibility of petitioners to advance their cases in the courts,” the former vice president said.
He argued that the law, rather than strengthening electoral transparency, inadvertently weakened accountability mechanisms and placed excessive burdens on petitioners seeking judicial redress.
Atiku stressed that unless urgent legislative action is taken, Nigeria risks repeating the same mistakes witnessed in the 2023 elections when voters head to the polls again in 2027.
“It is imperative that if the mistakes of the 2023 election are to be corrected, the legal instrument for the conduct of the 2027 and subsequent future elections needs to be reviewed,” he stated.
He warned that failure to act decisively could erode public trust in the electoral system and further damage Nigeria’s democratic credentials.
The former vice president went further to accuse the Senate of intentionally blocking the passage of proposed amendments to the Electoral Act, despite widespread calls for reform from civil society groups, opposition parties and election observers.
“But as things stand, it has become obvious that the Senate is determined to frustrate the passage of amendments to the 2022 Electoral Act,” Atiku alleged.
He did not single out individual lawmakers but suggested that the delays were part of a broader attempt to preserve a flawed legal framework ahead of future elections.
Atiku warned that refusing to amend the Electoral Act before 2027 would amount to compromising the electoral process even before voting begins.
“The credibility of the 2027 general elections hinges on the urgency with which the Senate treats this crucial bill,” he said.
“It is, therefore, imperative that the Senate finalises the amendments and ensures the updated law governs the conduct of the 2027 elections. Anything short of this is a deliberate attempt to rig the election long before the ballots are cast.”
The Electoral Act 2022, signed into law in February 2022, currently regulates the conduct of elections in Nigeria, including voter accreditation, electronic transmission of results and dispute resolution.
In the aftermath of the 2023 elections, the National Assembly initiated moves to amend the law to address identified shortcomings, with proposed changes expected to strengthen transparency, improve judicial clarity and enhance the use of technology in elections ahead of 2027.