There is increasing uproar over the approval of manual transmission of results, an alternative to failure of electronic transmission of results, at polling units, in the Electoral Act amendment by the Senate.

Stakeholders argue that manual collation of results will create loophole for manipulating the electoral process.

Critics expressed feelings of distrust in the INEC, the election administration institution. The loophole, they noted, will disrupt transparency and credibility of the electoral process.

The Senate, on Wednesday, endorsed electronic transmission of election results from the polling units; as well as manual collation of result on the event that electronic transmission fails.

A social commentator, Deji Olaleye, was of the view that the loophole created by the legislation will give room for manipulation and take Nigeria's democracy back to the dark days.

Timothy Bamidele, a communication expert, highlighted challenges that may lead to manual collation and how they can be solved. He was of the view that the challenges of electronic processes can be handled within time limit, and there would be no need for manual collation.