Electoral Bill Controversy: NASS Bows To Buhari
- Card reader now legal
BY VICTOR BUORO, ABUJA – The National Assembly (NASS) has adopted the fourth Electoral Amendment Bill seeking to strengthen the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for free, fair and credible elections come 2019.
Rising from a closed door meeting lasting over several hours, Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Electoral and Political Matters said the new version of the electoral bill has cleaned up all areas of concerns raised by President Muhammadu Buhari that saw him withholding assent to the bill thrice.
This is as Chairman of the Joint Committee, Senator Suleiman Nazif (PDP – Bauchi North), assured that the National Assembly, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Executive are on the same page on the new Electoral Bill
In agreeing with the President’s observations, the Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Representatives on Electoral and Political Matters said they have consolidated the first, second and third into one document that will now pass the test for Mr President’s assent.
Addressing the media in Abuja, the Committee said it amended and adopted the 14 clauses in the 2018 Electoral Amendment Bill that will be transmitted to the President when the NASS resumes from its current break.
According to Joint Committee Chairman, Senator Nazif, the fourth amendment bill has addressed all areas of controversies and listed the 14 consolidated amendments to include sections 9(1A); 9(B5); 18(1.4); 19(4); 30(1); 31(1.1); 31(7); 34(2-4 deleted); and 36(3) as amended. Others are: 44(3, 4); 67(a, b, c, d 6-9); 87(2); 87(14); and 112(4).
The Joint committee’s statement read by Nasif stated thus; “This Bill seeks to amend the Electoral Act No.6, 2010 to make provisions for the restriction of the qualification for elective office to relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended); use of Card Readers and other technological devices in election and Political Party Primaries, to provide a time line for the submission of list of candidates, criteria for substitution of candidates, limit of campaign expenses, and address the omission of names of candidates or logo of political parties.”
He further explained that Section 9(1A) deals with INEC keeping the Register of Voters in electronic format; in manual form; printed paper-based record or hard copy format in its central database; while Section 9(B5) on the register of voters says that update and revision of Voters register shall stop not later than 30 days before any election covered by the Act.
Similarly, Nazif said the committee came up with additional amendments, based on the draft submitted by the executive arm, adding that the controversial issues of elections’ sequence and the National Assembly’s powers to legislate for local government councils contained in the first Electoral Amendment Bill that the President declined assent have been addressed in the new bill.
Senator Nazif, who dismissed speculations around the electronic card reader, said the card reader has never been an issue and was never deleted from the Bill.
He assured that the entire process has been designed to strengthen INEC and deepen the nation’s democracy.
