Nigeria: President Buhari approves amendment to electoral law

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday approved an amendment to the electoral law providing for the possibility of electronically transmitting the results of an election from the presidential election of 2023, with the stated objective of reducing the risk of fraud.

Polls in Nigeria have repeatedly been marred by suspicions of fraud since Africa's most populous country returned to civilian rule in 1999 after decades of military dictatorship.

The new Electoral Law authorizes the Electoral Commission (INEC) to electronically transmit voting results and electronically register voters to help prevent fraud.

It also makes possible the publication of provisional results immediately after the count in the voting centers.

In previous elections, the first results were known several days and sometimes weeks after they were held in this country where many regions are plagued by great insecurity - thus increasing the possibility of fraud, according to civil society organizations.

“There are salient and commendable provisions that could positively revolutionize elections in Nigeria through the introduction of new technological innovations,” President Buhari said while signing the new law.

"These innovations can secure citizens' constitutional rights to vote and to do so effectively," he added.

President Buhari, a former putschist general in the 1980s but democratically elected in 2015 before being re-elected in 2019, had initially rejected a first amendment to this law, which then provided for the obligation for political parties to hold primaries. directly to nominate their candidate.

In this new version, the political parties keep the possibility of choosing or not this mode of nomination of the candidates.

Mr Buhari will leave power after two four-year terms, and political negotiations to nominate the candidates have already begun in view of this election, which is due to be held in February 2023.

No candidate has yet emerged to replace Mr Buhari, but the ruling APC party already has several suitors, including the influential former Governor of Lagos, Bola Tinubu.

The country's independent electoral commission has come under fire following President Buhari's re-election in 2019, with some saying the ballot was neither free nor transparent.

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