“If BVAS fails, election must be cancelled and redone in 24 hours”- 2026 Electoral Act says

In February 2023, Nigerians queued under the sun to vote in a presidential election that promised to be different. INEC had staked its credibility on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

This is a device that would verify voters biometrically and transmit results in real time. By midday, reports were flooding in from Lagos, Rivers, Kano, and at least a dozen other states. BVAS devices were failing. Batteries were dead. Servers were unreachable. In some polling units, accreditation simply did not happen.

INEC’s response was improvisation. Affected units were rescheduled. Some were quietly absorbed into supplementary elections weeks later. There was no clear legal framework governing what had to happen next, or how fast.

Nigeria just changed that. And the new rule is tighter than most people realise.

What the Electoral Act 2026 says about BVAS

Section 47 (2) of the Electoral Act 2026 formally embeds the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, or any technological equivalent INEC prescribes, into Nigerian law for the first time. It is no longer just policy. It is now a statute.

But it is Section 47(3) that carries the sharpest edge.

The section states that where a BVAS or any other accreditation device deployed in a polling unit fails to function, and a fresh device is not deployed as a replacement, the election in that unit shall be cancelled. Not suspended. Not postponed. Cancelled.

It goes further.

If INEC is satisfied that the result of the cancelled unit would substantially affect the final result and declaration of a winner in the constituency, a new election must be scheduled within 24 hours.

BVAS

What does the 24-hour timeline mean?

To understand why that window is extraordinary, consider what organising a polling-unit election in Nigeria actually involves.

• INEC must redeploy security personnel, typically a joint arrangement involving the Nigeria Police Force, the DSS, and, in some cases, the military
• It must redistribute sensitive election materials, including ballot papers, result sheets, and tamper-evident bags.
• It must confirm the same presiding officers or find replacements
• It must notify candidates and their polling agents, who are legally entitled to be present.

In urban Lagos or Abuja, 24 hours is tight but conceivable. In Zamfara, Borno, or the riverine communities of Delta State, where some polling units are only reachable by boat or on foot, it stretches into the realm of the genuinely impossible.

In 2023, INEC recorded device-related failures in no fewer than 6 states during the presidential election alone, according to situation reports published by civil society observers, including YIAGA Africa. Some affected units ran supplementary elections weeks later. Under the new law, that timeline would be illegal.

The budget and procurement question

There is a financial dimension here that has not entered the public conversation.

The 24-hour rule implicitly requires INEC to maintain a functional reserve of BVAS devices. That is, ready to deploy on same-day notice to any polling unit in Nigeria’s 176,846 registered polling units. That is not a minor logistics footnote. It is a procurement mandate with a significant price tag.

Joash Ojo Amupitan – INEC Chairman

INEC’s 2023 election budget was approximately ₦305 billion. A substantial portion went to technology procurement, including BVAS devices. What portion of any future budget is ring-fenced for standby device reserves? Has the Commission published a device redundancy plan?

As of the time of this report, no such plan is publicly available.

INEC’s election technology costs stand at ₦209.21 billion. But, how much of it goes into BVAS?

The Electoral Act 2026 has set a 24-hour clock. Nobody has yet explained who is paying to keep it running.

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