Senate Passes Electoral Act Amendment to End Pre-Election Forum Shopping

The Nigerian Senate passed an amendment to the Electoral Act, 2026, last week, locking down which courts can handle pre-election cases and effectively ending years of forum shopping that has caused chaos in Nigerian electoral litigation.

What the Bill Does

The amendment, sponsored by Senator Simon Lalong of Plateau South and chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, passed its second and third readings on Thursday, May 7. It designates specific courts — the Federal High Court and the Court of Appeal — as the only venues for pre-election matters. Presidential election disputes will now originate at the Appeal Court level.

According to TheCable, the legislation “seeks to curb ‘forum shopping’, a practice where litigants file cases in multiple courts across different states to obtain favourable rulings on the same internal party disputes.” BusinessDay reported that the bill passed on May 8 after robust debate in the chamber.

Why Forum Shopping Was a Problem

For years, Nigerian political parties and individual candidates have exploited gaps in the Electoral Act by filing identical cases in courts of coordinate jurisdiction across different states. The result: contradictory rulings on the same dispute, legal uncertainty close to elections, and prolonged litigation that sometimes outlasted the election cycle itself.

The Nation reported that the amendment establishes “a clear jurisdictional framework” — one court, one ruling, no parallel proceedings on the same matter.

Significant Change Ahead of 2027

The timing is deliberate. With 2027 gubernatorial and presidential elections less than two years away, the Senate is trying to clean up electoral litigation before the campaign season kicks off in earnest. If the House of Representatives passes the bill and the president assents to it, pre-election cases will be significantly harder to weaponize as political delay tactics.

Critics have previously argued that forum shopping wasn’t just a nuisance — it was a calculated strategy to tie up opponents in court while continuing a parallel political campaign. If the amendment holds, that particular playbook is closed.

Sources: The Nation, TheCable, BusinessDay