Nigeria, Feb. 10 -- The fierce national reaction to the Senate's handling of electronic transmission in the Electoral Act amendment is not a dispute about technical procedure. It is a confrontation over credibility. The controversy now unfolding around Clause 60(3), discretionary language, and the rejection of mandatory real-time uploads is not simply legislative disagreement; it is a public referendum on whether Nigeria's electoral system can be trusted to carry the will of voters intact from polling units to final declaration.

Recent developments have sharpened that question dramatically. Labour unions threaten mass action and election boycotts. Civil society organizations demand investigations into alleged procedural irregularities. ...