The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has explained the rationale behind the National Assembly’s decision to reduce the statutory notice period for elections from 360 days to 300 days.

Abbas spoke on Wednesday at the State House after President Bola Tinubu signed the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill into law, following its passage by the legislature on Tuesday.

According to the Speaker, the reduction was carefully considered to ensure that the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections do not fall within the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

“Well, I think the Senate President has said most of the things that we have done during the amendment exercise,” Abbas said. “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,” he explained.

Abbas added that the decision was aimed at reducing voter apathy and enhancing participation in the next general election, describing it as part of the National Assembly’s efforts to fine-tune the electoral process.

President Tinubu signed the bill in the presence of the leadership of the National Assembly, marking the culmination of months of legislative work on electoral reforms.

However, the amendment process was not without controversy. The House of Representatives was thrown into a rowdy session on Tuesday as lawmakers clashed over a motion seeking to rescind the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

The motion, moved by the Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Francis Waive, sought to align the House with the Senate’s position on provisions relating to real-time electronic transmission of election results.

When the Speaker put the motion to a voice vote, the “nays” appeared louder than the “ayes,” but he ruled in favour of the motion, triggering protests and shouts of objection from some lawmakers.

The tension forced the Speaker to call for an executive session to restore order.

It will be recalled that when the House initially passed the Electoral Act amendment in December 2025, it adopted a provision making real-time electronic transmission of election results to the IReV platform compulsory.