The Nigerian Senate has passed the Electoral Act Amendment bill. This is the fourth time the bill has been passed in the senate, following three rejections from the president of the country, Muhammadu Buhari. The serial rejection of the bill by the President has stalled legislation for next year’s crucial general election for several months.
The first version of the bill was immersed in controversy following the proposed re-ordering of the elections sequence as contained in section 25 of the amendment. The controversial section 25 stated that: “Election into the office of the President and Vice-President, Governor and Deputy Governor of a state, Membership of the Senate and the House of Representatives and the House of Assembly of each state of the federation shall be held in the following order: (a) National Assembly elections. (b) State House of Assembly and governorship election (c) Presidential election.”
Following the adoption of the Conference Committee report on the bill on February 14, 2018, ten APC senators, led by Senator Abdullahi Adamu (APC, Nasarawa) left plenary and staged a press conference in protest. Speaking at the Press Conference, Senator Adamu described the amendment to section 25 as unconstitutional, partisan, and targeted at President Muhammadu Buhari.
Expectedly, the President declined his assent to the bill on the 3rd March, 2018. In a letter addressed to the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki and Speaker of House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, President Buhari stated that the amendments infringe on the rights of INEC to determine the conduct of polls.
The failed override and more rejections
Following the decision of the President to withhold his assent, the National Assembly then embarked on a short-lived attempt to override the President’s decision. Consequently, the focus shifted to reworking the bill before presenting it for Presidential assent, without of the controversial election sequence clause.
Surprisingly, the President spurned signing the bill. Informing the National Assembly of his latest snub in August, President Buhari cited drafting issues which, he said, might affect the interpretation and application of the principal act. This second rejection led to many insinuations that the President was against the use of card readers for the election.
Again, another rejection of the bill was recorded and widely reported on the 3rd September, 2018. This rejection was announced in a statement released by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang. According to Enang, “Mr. President is declining assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill due to some drafting issues that remain unaddressed following the prior revisions to the Bill.’’
“Mr. President invites the Senate and House of Representatives to address these issues as quickly as possible so that he may grant President Assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill. A few of the outstanding issues are:
“There is a cross referencing error in the proposed amendment to Section 18 of the Bill. The appropriate amendment is to substitute the existing sub-section (2) with the proposed subsection (1A), while the proposed sub-section (1B) is the new sub-section (2A)
“The proposed amendment to include a new Section 87 (14) which stipulates a specific period within which political party primaries are required to be held has the unintended consequence of leaving INEC with only 9 days to collate and compile lists of candidates and political parties as well manage the primaries of 91 political parties for the various elections.
“This is because the Electoral Amendment Bill does not amend sections 31, 34 and 85 which stipulates times for the submission of lists of candidates, publication of lists of candidates and notice of convention, congresses for nominating candidates for elections.’’
Highlights of the passed bill
Card readers: The card reader has been added through an amendment to Section 49, by inserting a new subsection (2). It states that: “The Presiding Officer shall use a Smart Card Reader or any other similar technological device that may be prescribed by the Commission, for the purpose of accreditation of voters, to verify, confirm or authenticate the particulars of the voter in the manner prescribed by the Commission.” Subsection 4 of the same section adds that: “Where a Smart Card Reader deployed for accreditation of voter fails to function in any unit and a fresh card reader is not deployed 3 hours before the close of the election in that unit or units, then the election shall not hold but be rescheduled and conducted within 24 hours thereafter.” However, there is a provision to announce the final results and declare a winner if the total possible votes from all the affected card readers does not affect the overall result.
Election expenses: The spending limit for Senatorial election has been set at N250million while that of the House of Representatives is pegged at N100million. The Presidential and Governorship maximum election expenses are fixed at N5billion and N1billion respectively. Furthermore, the limit for state assembly membership and Area Council Chairmanship is N30million while Councillorship election campaign outlay should not exceed N5million.
Donations: No individual under the new bill is permitted to donate more than N10million. Any candidate that accepts an amount above that shall be liable to a fine of N1million or be imprisoned for a maximum period of 12 months.
Primaries: Primaries shall not be earlier than 150 days and not later than 90 days before the date of the election.
Primary election sequence:Primary elections will be held in the following order; National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly, Governorship and Presidential.
Omission of candidates: When a candidate notifies INEC that his name, name or logo of his political party is missing on the ballot paper, the commission will postpone the election to rectify the omission and fix another date to conduct the election, not later than 90 days. In addition, the INEC officer responsible for such printing error is liable on conviction to imprisonment for 2 years or a fine of N2million.
Light at the end of the tunnel?
Speaking during the passage of the electoral amendment bill, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Suleiman Nazif (PDP, Bauchi) noted that all the previous concerns expressed by the President have now been “captured and addressed.” Nazif’s statement was effectively an admission that the bill has now been modified to suit the President’s expectations. In view of this, hopes are high that the amendment will scale through this time around with just over three months to the general elections. Also, the contentious issues of electoral sequence and card readers have now been addressed.
Original reporting by Damilola Adeniran
