Mike Igini, who served as Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo and Akwa Ibom states, has raised fresh concerns about provisions in the Electoral Act 2026 that he says could sabotage the 2027 general elections.
Igini, a lawyer who has championed transparent elections since leaving the electoral body, addressed opposition party leaders at a National Summit in Ibadan on ensuring free, fair and credible polls. He argued that transparent elections form the bedrock of democracy, and that votes must count or elections become mere ritual without real choice.
He expressed frustration that issues he thought were settled before he left office remain unresolved. The immediate trigger for his concern is the fate of the result transmission system and IREV, the electronic transmission platform that he said worked successfully in 105 off-season elections, including five governorship elections, before his departure from INEC. Both systems were later sabotaged, according to Igini.
After withdrawing from electoral commentary following the 2023 elections, Igini undertook what he describes as a meticulous review of the 2026 Electoral Act. What he found alarmed him. He did not merely identify legislative imperfection, but what he calls the re-emergence of provisions that constitute deliberate structural vulnerabilities. These, he says, are dangerous traps capable of undermining the credibility and integrity of the 2027 elections.
Igini has publicly named the problematic sections but stopped short of detailing all of them in the excerpts made available. He referenced earlier problems with Sections 49, 53, and 68 in the 2010 Electoral Act, which contained wide discretionary powers that facilitated election rigging. The implication is that similar provisions may have crept back into the 2026 Act.
His sense of despair is evident in his remarks. He questioned why frameworks designed for the collective good constantly get undermined, and why those who work toward electoral integrity find themselves caught in what he calls a fruitless cycle. The stakes, he stressed, are not merely legislative. Democratic contestation provides an institutionalised procedure for retaining or transferring power peacefully. To truncate or telescope that procedure is to invite chaos.
Igini has called for immediate amendments to the Electoral Act 2026 to remove these dangerous sections before the 2027 elections proceed. His intervention signals that civil society and election management experts remain deeply concerned about the legal framework that will govern the polls.
