{"id":195461,"date":"2026-02-19T22:56:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T21:56:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:01:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T23:01:14","slug":"electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi","title":{"rendered":"Electoral Act 2026 \u2018anti-people\u2019 \u2013 ADP Chairman Yabagi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Sani Yabagi, has criticised the newly signed Electoral Act 2026, describing it as \u201canti-people\u201d and a threat to Nigeria\u2019s democracy.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during an interview on African Independent Television\u2019s Focus Nigeria programme, Yabagi argued that the amendment reintroduces discretionary powers that could permit interference in the electoral process.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was nothing fundamentally wrong with what we had before this amendment, except in a few areas,\u201d Yabagi said. \u201cBut the most important aspect of that law was the discretion given to INEC, to manually interfere with the process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yabagi acknowledged the role of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in voter accreditation but insisted that the electronic transmission of results remains crucial to safeguarding electoral integrity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBVAS can confirm voters. But we needed something to confirm the winners,\u201d he said. \u201cThe only time-stamped device that is incontrovertible anywhere, including in court, is transmission from the voting point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to him, while many have described BVAS as a game-changer, the absence of a mandatory electronic transmission of results could undermine its effectiveness.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody keeps saying BVAS is a game-changer. Yes, but we need a game-changer too. If you keep making election results doubtful, it will affect democracy itself,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Yabagi also criticised provisions that allow a return to manual collation where network failures occur, arguing that such clauses weaken reforms aimed at curbing manipulation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo say that when the network fails, we should go back to the manual process is to make nonsense of everything we have talked about,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He further alleged that the All Progressives Congress (APC) was working to exploit potential network disruptions during elections.<\/p>\n<p>Yabagi said, \u201cWhen a political party is working against the interests of the people and their sovereignty, then it must be called out. The whole APC is working against the interests of Nigerians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ADP chairman maintained that electoral malpractice often occurs during collation and the physical movement of results.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we all know is that election rigging takes place during collation, when results are moved from one place to another. That\u2019s when people have the ability to change results,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that weakening electronic safeguards could place Nigeria\u2019s democracy in a \u201cprecarious situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey are putting our democracy in danger. We call it democracy, but it is like a monarchical system, because every institution is in the hands of the man who is also contesting,\u201d Yabagi said.<\/p>\n<p>As of the time of filing this report, the APC had not responded to the allegations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Sani Yabagi, has criticised the newly signed Electoral Act 2026, describing it as \u201canti-people\u201d and a threat to Nigeria\u2019s democracy. Speaking during an interview on African Independent Television\u2019s Focus Nigeria programme, Yabagi argued that the amendment reintroduces discretionary powers that could permit interference [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":195459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,14],"tags":[254],"class_list":["post-195461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Electoral Act 2026 \u2018anti-people\u2019 \u2013 ADP Chairman Yabagi - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Sani Yabagi, has criticised the newly signed Electoral Act 2 ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Electoral Act 2026 \u2018anti-people\u2019 \u2013 ADP Chairman Yabagi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The National Chairman of the Action Democratic Party (ADP), Sani Yabagi, has criticised the newly signed Electoral Act 2 ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T21:56:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-19T23:01:14+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771542053.143874.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1299\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"919\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Electoral Act 2026 \u2018anti-people\u2019 \u2013 ADP Chairman Yabagi\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-19T21:56:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-19T23:01:14+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi\"},\"wordCount\":443,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/sm_1771542053.143874.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/policy\/electoral-act-2026-anti-people-adp-chairman-yabagi\",\"name\":\"Electoral Act 2026 \u2018anti-people\u2019 \u2013 ADP Chairman Yabagi - 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