Members of the Joint National Assembly Conference Committee constituted to reconcile differences in the Electoral Amendment Bill passed separately by the Senate and the House of Representatives are expected to meet on Monday as lawmakers move to transmit a harmonised version to President Bola Tinubu for assent.
Findings on Thursday showed that the joint panel, made up of members from both chambers, has been given a one-week window to resolve contentious provisions in the bill — notably those dealing with the electronic transmission of election results.
The decision to harmonise the bill follows the passage of different versions by the Senate and the House, particularly on the role of technology in result collation and transmission. Under legislative procedure, where both chambers pass varying texts of the same bill, a conference committee is set up to produce a single version acceptable to both sides before transmission to the President.
The current amendment process is coming on the heels of the controversies that trailed the 2023 general election, especially the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission to upload presidential election results to its Result Viewing Portal in real time.
Civil society groups, opposition parties and several lawmakers have since pressed for clearer statutory backing for the electronic transmission of results to prevent ambiguity and strengthen electoral transparency ahead of 2027.
Although many lawmakers have remained silent on the likely outcome of the harmonisation process, some admitted privately that they were keenly awaiting the meeting to know the committee’s final position on the disputed clauses.
A National Assembly source confirmed that the harmonisation exercise would begin on Monday.
“It is taking place on Monday,” the source stated via a WhatsApp message.
When approached after a recent interaction with journalists on the proposed meeting date, the lawmaker representing Bayelsa West, Senator Seriake Dickson, said Monday was a likely date for the harmonisation of the bill.
“I don’t know the actual date since I am not a member of the Conference Committee. But we are hoping it may take place next Monday,” he said.
Efforts to obtain clarification from the Senate spokesman, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, and the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Senator Niyi Adegbonmire, were unsuccessful, as they neither answered calls nor responded to text messages seeking comment.
The development comes amid heightened public interest in the fate of the Electoral Amendment Bill, following recent disagreements over provisions relating to the electronic transmission of results.
Dickson, on Wednesday, urged members of the Conference Committee to adopt entirely the version passed by the House of Representatives, warning that weakening the electronic transmission clause could erode public confidence in the electoral process.
The former Bayelsa State governor spoke in Abuja, less than 48 hours after the Senate reversed an earlier position and restored electronic transmission of election results to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal, IReV, while allowing manual collation as a fallback in the event of technological failure.
Dickson, a member of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, maintained that extensive consultations had been undertaken by lawmakers and stakeholders to strengthen the country’s electoral legal framework before the Senate’s initial alterations.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio had also indicated that the harmonised bill would be transmitted to President Tinubu for assent before the end of the month, raising expectations that the amendments could be concluded well ahead of preparations for the 2027 general election.
The PUNCH