The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has clarified why the National Assembly reduced the election notice period from 360 days to 300 days in the newly amended Electoral Act.
He spoke at the State House on Wednesday shortly after President Bola Ahmed Tinubu assented to the Electoral Bill.
According to the Speaker, the adjustment is intended to prevent the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections from coinciding with the month of Ramadan.
He said, “Well, I think the Senate President has said most of the things that we have done yesterday during the amendment exercise. However, there is one area that I’m sure he forgot to mention, and that is the number of days’ notice, which was earlier in the 2022 Act, 360 days.
“Now we have seen the wisdom to reduce it to 300 days, and this will inadvertently translate to holding the presidential and National Assembly elections in January 2027. That will technically avoid conducting elections during the month of Ramadan in 2027, and I think this is another piece of ingenuity that the National Assembly has introduced to avoid voter apathy in the next general election.”
President Tinubu signed the legislation into law in the presence of the leadership of the National Assembly after lawmakers approved it on Tuesday.
Despite its eventual passage, the bill generated heated exchanges in the House of Representatives. Lawmakers clashed over a motion seeking to revisit the earlier approval of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, particularly the provisions dealing with real-time electronic transmission of results.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Francis Waive, introduced a motion asking the House to rescind its previous decision on the bill, which had been passed on December 23 in alignment with the Senate’s stance on real-time electronic transmission of election results.
When Speaker Abbas put the motion to a voice vote, the “nays” were reportedly louder than the “ayes,” yet he declared that the ayes had prevailed.
That pronouncement sparked protests from several lawmakers, who raised objections and shouted in disagreement, prompting the Speaker to order an executive session to restore order.
Earlier, when the House passed the Electoral Act in December 2025, it had endorsed compulsory real-time transmission of election results to the IReV portal managed by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
What you should know
The House of Representatives reduced the election notice period from 360 to 300 days to ensure the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections do not coincide with Ramadan.
Speaker Abbas Tajudeen said the move is aimed at limiting voter apathy and improving participation. The decision formed part of the broader Electoral Act amendment signed into law by President Tinubu.
However, the bill sparked controversy in the House, particularly over provisions on real-time electronic transmission of results, leading to a tense and rowdy session before final approval.
