In a plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu on Thursday, the House of Representatives has approved a significant increase in campaign spending limits for candidates contesting elective offices, and made other amendments to the Electoral Act 2022, aimed at strengthening the credibility, transparency and integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
The House endorsed major reforms to the Electoral Act 2022, including provisions that formally recognise the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) as the primary tool for accrediting voters and mandate the real-time electronic transmission of election results.
At the sitting, lawmakers approved a clause requiring presiding officers at polling units to use BVAS or any other technological device prescribed by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to verify and authenticate voters’ details.
The provision further states that where the accreditation technology fails and a replacement device is not deployed, voting at the affected polling unit must be cancelled.
Under the amendment, INEC will be required to conduct a fresh election within 24 hours in such circumstances, provided the commission determines that the failure would substantially affect the final outcome of the election in the constituency concerned.
The House also approved a provision making electronic transmission of election results compulsory. The amendment mandates presiding officers to electronically transmit results from each polling unit to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV) immediately after the conclusion of voting and counting.
These resolutions and others were adopted on Thursday during a clause-by-clause consideration of the report of the House Committee on Electoral Matters.
Under the approved amendments, the ceiling on campaign expenditure for presidential candidates was raised from ₦5 billion to ₦10 billion.
Governorship candidates will now be allowed to spend up to ₦3 billion, compared to the previous ₦1 billion limit.
For senatorial contests, the spending cap was increased from ₦100 million to ₦500 million, while candidates for the House of Representatives can now spend up to ₦250 million, up from ₦70 million.
The House also raised the campaign spending limits for state House of Assembly candidates from ₦30 million to ₦100 million.
For local government chairmanship elections, the ceiling was similarly increased from ₦30 million to ₦100 million, while councillorship candidates will now be permitted to spend up to ₦10 million, compared to the earlier ₦5 million limit.
In addition, the Reps approved a provision that restricts individual or corporate donations to candidates to a maximum of ₦500 million, in a bid to curb undue influence and excessive monetisation of the electoral process.
There were reports that the House commenced deliberations on the proposed electoral reforms on Wednesday, reviewing several provisions of the existing law and proposing amendments intended to address gaps exposed during recent elections.