This was meant to give the Red Chamber a room for more
consultations among the senators before the next sitting.

Both chambers of the National Assembly, the Senate and the
House of Representatives, had on Monday, through their joint Committees on
Electoral Matters, held a public hearing on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill,
2025.

Among the notable proposals is the conduct of the 2027
Presidential and Governorship elections in November 2026, rather than February
or March of the every election year.

Presenting the general principles of the bill, Chairman of
the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Senator Simon Lalong (Plateau South)
explained that the proposed legislation, which was first read on October 8,
2025, goes beyond minor amendments, describing it as a comprehensive reform
aimed at providing Nigeria with a more credible, transparent, and inclusive
electoral framework.

According to him, the 2023 general elections revealed both
strengths and weaknesses in the current system.

“The 2023 elections tested our democracy in profound ways.
While the 2022 Act introduced landmark innovations, it also exposed critical
gaps — delays in election funding, disputes over voter registers, conflicting
interpretations of result transmission, and weak enforcement of electoral
offences,” Lalong said.

He added that Nigerians expect not “patchwork corrections,”
but a holistic law that restores faith in the electoral process.

President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, who
presided over the session, said Lalong did not give details in the general
principles of the bill, and suggested an executive session to consider the
bill.

But the Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele
(Ekiti Central), said the day was too auspicious for the Senate to go into
executive session and suggested that the bill be stepped down or another
legislative day.

Consequently, Akpabio put it to voice vote, which senators
approved its stepping down.