President Bola Tinubu has signed the Electoral Act 2026 into law, bringing a major change to the way election results can be challenged in Nigeria.
Tinubu signed the law on February 18, 2026, after the National Assembly passed it. The law is expected to apply to the 2027 general elections.
One of the biggest changes is that certificate forgery, age falsification and false declarations can no longer be used as grounds to challenge an election result after voting has ended.
Under Section 138 of the new Electoral Act, an election can now be challenged on only two main grounds.
The first is that the election was invalid because of corrupt practices or because election officials failed to follow the law.
The second is that the person declared the winner did not receive the majority of lawful votes.
This means questions about whether a candidate used a fake certificate, gave false information about their age or made a false declaration are no longer grounds for asking an election tribunal to cancel the result after the election.
The previous Electoral Act 2022 allowed election petitions to question whether a candidate was qualified to contest. The new law removes that option from post election cases.
The new law also comes with heavy financial penalties. Lawyers who bring issues outside the permitted grounds can face a fine of at least five million naira, while petitioners can face a minimum fine of ten million naira.
However, the new law does not make forgery legal.
The 1999 Constitution still says that anyone who presents a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, cannot hold the office of president, governor or lawmaker. Forgery also remains a criminal offence under Nigerian law.
The main change is when such issues can be raised.
Under the new system, questions about a candidate’s qualifications, certificates and other personal details are expected to be dealt with before the election. Once voters have cast their ballots and a winner has been declared, those issues can no longer be used as grounds for an election petition.
Supporters of the change say there is no protection for people who forge documents. They argue that forgery can still be investigated and prosecuted through the normal legal system.
APC National Publicity Secretary Felix Morka has also said the law does not make forgery legal.
INEC has backed the interpretation, saying questions about whether a candidate is qualified to contest now belong to the pre election stage rather than the post election stage.
The speed with which the law was passed has also attracted attention. The National Assembly approved the legislation and Tinubu signed it within 24 hours.
The change has sparked debate across Nigeria, with critics questioning whether politicians are being given an advantage that ordinary citizens do not enjoy.
Many Nigerians point to the consequences faced by ordinary people who use fake certificates. Such people can lose jobs, face blacklisting and potentially face criminal prosecution. Critics argue that it is unfair for similar questions involving politicians to become almost impossible to raise after an election has been won.
Legal experts have also raised questions about the relationship between the new Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution.
The Constitution remains the highest law in Nigeria, meaning the Electoral Act cannot legally override a clear constitutional provision. Several legal challenges are already seeking to test whether the new rules can stand where they appear to conflict with constitutional requirements.
The controversy is therefore unlikely to end with the signing of the law.
As Nigeria prepares for the 2027 general elections, political parties, candidates and voters will now have to pay closer attention to candidate qualifications before election day.
The new law has effectively moved the battle over certificates, age claims and other qualification issues from the courtroom after an election to the period before voters go to the polls.
