Electoral Act: Uncertainty trails conference committee meeting as Reps fail to show up

The proceedings of the conference committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on the Electoral Act (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2026, were thrown into disarray yesterday after members of the House of Representatives reportedly failed to convene for deliberations, forcing a last-minute shift of the meeting to late evening.

The disruption comes amid mounting pressure on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), exactly 368 days ahead of the February 20, 2027 general elections, to guarantee that electronic transmission of results is seamless, transparent and legally defensible unlike the controversy that followed the 2023 presidential election.

The committee had initially scheduled its session for 11:00 am, but the meeting did not commence as planned due to the absence of key participants, particularly lawmakers from the House of Representatives.

Confirming the development, a senior member of the committee expressed frustration, saying, “How can there be a conclusion when the meeting failed to hold?”

The lawmaker declined to elaborate further before those present eventually vacated the venue.

Sources disclosed that several senators arrived at the meeting point at the appointed time and waited, but no member of the House committee turned up.

It was gathered that the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Senator Simon Lalong, and his House counterpart, Adebayo Balogun, were present despite the absence of other House members.

After waiting for several minutes, the senators reportedly relocated to Senator Lalong’s office and, about 20 minutes later, reconvened, resolving to shift the meeting to 3:00 pm.

However, by 3:30 p.m., while senators including Jibrin Isah, Abba Moro and Tahir Monguno were seated, no House member had appeared. At about 4:00 pm, Senator Lalong arrived and was later joined by Balogun, still without other House representatives. The two leaders held a brief closed-door discussion lasting about 10 minutes before departing, effectively ending the day without reaching a harmonised position on the bill.