This marked a sharp increase from the N50 million fine contained in the Principal Act. Lawmakers also endorsed a N5 million fine for the improper use of a voter’s card.
The House of Representatives has moved to harden Nigeria’s electoral offence regime, approving stiffer penalties for key violations as lawmakers amended the Electoral Act, 2022.
At the plenary on Thursday, the House approved a 10-year jail term or a fine of N75million for individuals convicted of forging nomination papers or destroying election result sheets.
This marked a sharp increase from the N50 million fine contained in the Principal Act. Lawmakers also endorsed a N5 million fine for the improper use of a voter’s card.
However, in a move that reflects concerns over potential political abuse, the House rejected a proposal seeking to impose a two-year prison term on persons who financially or materially induce delegates to influence the outcome of party primaries, congresses or conventions.
Members argued that such provisions could be weaponised by political opponents to harass aspirants and candidates.
The amendments also recalibrate how electoral authorities should respond to over-voting. Lawmakers removed the existing provision that mandated the outright cancellation of results and the conduct of fresh elections in polling units where over-voting is established.
Instead, the House approved a new framework allowing excess votes to be deducted proportionately from the scores of all candidates, while the Presiding Officer in the affected polling unit would be prosecuted.
Explaining the legislative choices behind the changes, the Chairman of the House Committee on Electoral Matters, Adebayo Balogun, said the Electoral Bill 2025 was initially conceived as a wholesale replacement of the Electoral Act 2022.
According to him, the proposal was driven by the desire to consolidate gains from recent elections and address emerging challenges within Nigeria electoral system.
"The committee, guided by stakeholder engagements, public hearings and expert submissions, initially proposed far-reaching reforms aimed at modernising the electoral framework,” Balogun said.
“These included early voting, inmate voting, the replacement of the Permanent Voters’ Card with more technology-driven accreditation mechanisms, adjustments to electoral timelines, and other innovations that would have significantly altered the structure and philosophy of the Electoral Act 2022,” he added.
Balogun noted that legislative procedure ultimately shaped the House’s final decision. "In legislative practice, repeal and reenactment is appropriate where proposed changes fundamentally transform the identity of an existing law,” he said.
“In this case, since several of those transformative provisions were not approved at committee stage, the House, sitting as a Committee of the Whole, resolved that amendment rather than outright repeal was the more appropriate path,” he said.