BEVERLY HILLS, March 30, (THEWILL) – The Senate has passed amendments to the Electoral Act 2010 thereby approving the use of electronic voting in the 2019 general elections and other future elections and empowers the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to deploy the card reader device for voter accreditation.
The passage of bill followed the consideration of the report of the senate committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on a bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act No. 6, 2010 and for other related matters (SB 231 and SB 234).
Among the sweeping provisions contained in the 2017 Electoral Act, passed into law by the Senate on Thursday, the Senate also addressed confusion that could from sudden death of candidate of a political party before conclusion of election.
The new stipulates that the political party of such a dead candidate is mandated to conduct fresh primary election to elect a new candidate within 14 days, while the INEC is given 21 days to conclude the election with the transfer of votes of the deceased candidate to the new one.
The said section however gives the INEC the discretion to use other methods of voting if it is impracticable to use electronic voting in any given election also approving that election results can be electronically transmitted to collation centres.
Other provisions contained in the Act are section 8 (5) where any staff of INEC found to be registered member of any of the political parties is liable to an offence carrying 5 years jail term or N5, 000,000.00 fine or both.
Section 87 deals with nominations of candidates by parties for election from councillorship to presidency, with pegging of the amounts that should be collected from them by their various political parties.
The Act states that monies collected from aspirants by political parties for councillorship election should not exceed N150, 000.00; Local Government Chairman, N250, 000.00; State House of Assembly member N500, 000.00; House of Representatives member N1,000,000.00; Senatorial aspirant N2, 000,000.00; Governor of a State N5, 000, 000.00; and N10, 000,000.00 from a presidential aspirant.
The bill also gives political parties power to adopt direct or indirect primaries in choosing their flag bearers, while qualification of disqualification of candidates for elections will be solely based on the constitution.
The Act under jurisdiction of courts specifically stated that though courts can entertain cases relating or arising from conduct of party primaries from aggrieved aspirants but cannot stop any of the primary elections from holding.
Commenting after the adoption of the report, President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, thanked his colleagues for what he described as a job well done and expressed optimism that the Bill would further improve the nation’s electoral system and also contribute to good governance.
“Distinguished colleagues, let me thank all of you for this job well done. I want to particularly thank the members of the Committee on INEC and particularly the former chairman of the Committee, Abubakar Kyari, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege and all the members of the committee who have worked very hard to ensure the passage of this very important bill which addresses our electoral process and goes on to strengthen our democracy,” he said.
“We have touched on new areas which I believe will improve the credibility of our elections and by so doing, definitely improve our democracy and good governance.
“Most importantly, I think, are some of the new sections we have added, in the area of technology, the smart card reader, and particularly the area of collation which has been an area of great concern.
“Collation of results after the polling units and some of the additions we put on the electronic way by which the compilation of results can be done, I think will go a long way to reduce some of the irregularities we have seen before.
“This is a great work you have been able to put together today and I want to commend everybody. I am also happy that we have passed the amendments very early. My concern has always been that if we don’t do it now, it will get more difficult as we get blown to the 2019 elections.
“We hope that with this Bill that we have passed, very soon, we will sit together with the House of Representatives to be able to get the copy to the President for assent.
“I think when signed into law, it will enable INEC to have something to work early enough. I think what we have done today will really put our electoral law among the best that we have and it will go a long way in improving our electoral process.”
