The Deputy President of the Senate in Nigeria, Ovie Omo-Agege, who also serves as the Upper Chamber’s Chairman of Constitution Review, has shed more light on the ongoing amendment of the country’s Electoral Act.
This reform seeks to include stricter guidelines to be implemented by the country’s elections coordinator and monitor, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), as well as introduce relevant technology, such as the card reader, to the overall electioneering process.
Addressing relevant stakeholders and members of the press at the recent retreat organized by INEC and the National Assembly Committee on the “Reform of the Electoral Legal Framework,” Omo Agege revealed that the ongoing efforts to amend the act were motivated by recent developments in the political and electoral sphere.
He noted this while giving an overview of the Bill to amend the Electoral Act of 2010 which he presented to the Senate, stating that it was prompted by INEC and the Supreme Court, whose observations and recent rulings have raised concerns about elections in Nigeria.
In his paper titled: ‘Overview of the Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act (No. 6) and other Related Matters, 2019,’ the lawmaker said: “The Bill is, in part, a response to several decisions by the Supreme Court wherein the apex court directly or indirectly invited the National Assembly to make necessary amendments to the Electoral Act.”
While highlighting the role of the National Assembly in the inclusion of new technology, especially the card reader, he added: “The Supreme Court has consistently and firmly held the view that the guidelines, regulations and manuals issued by the Commission introducing the ‘Card Reader’ technology for the accreditation of intending voters requires express statutory basis. Indeed, the Supreme Court has specifically stated that if it is desirable, then it is only the National Assembly that has a constitutional mandate to write, or as the Court put it exactly, “bowdlerize” the technology into the Electoral Act.”
Potential Changes for Nigeria
Some of the items being reviewed by the panel charged with reforming the Electoral Legal Framework in Nigeria include: “Members of political parties are not allowed to get into the commission as employees or appointees unnoticed, and undermine the integrity of the commission from within (CLAUSE 1); mandating INEC to publish the Voters Register for public scrutiny at every Registration Area and on its website at least 30 days before a general election, and stipulating sanctions for any breach of this provision (CLAUSE 4); mandating INEC to suspend an election in order to allow a political party that lost its candidate before or during an election to conduct a fresh primary to elect a replacement or new candidate (CLAUSE 5); “Granting agents of political parties the right to inspect original electoral materials before the commencement of an election, and stipulating a sanction on politicians, their supporters or others whose actions led to such a breach of this amendment (CLAUSE 6);
“Granting political parties that nominated candidates for an election a right (exercisable within a specified time-frame) to inspect its identity/logo appearing on samples of relevant electoral materials proposed to avoid incessant cancellation of elections due to ‘exclusion’ of parties from the election due to printers’ errors or deliberate mischief of not including the logos of some parties on electoral materials (CLAUSE 7);
“Providing a detailed framework for the operation of current and future technological devices and innovations in the accreditation of intending voters, with clear sanctions for breaches (CLAUSE 8); mandating the commission to keep its database running until elections petitions are determined, so as not to make it impossible for petitioners and respondents to present their cases using relevant documents from the database (CLAUSE 8);
“Making ‘card reader’ reports generated and duly certified by the Commission as prima facie proof of the record of accreditation of voters (CLAUSE 8); defining ‘over-voting’ to include situations where ‘total votes cast’ also exceed ‘total number of accredited voters’ (CLAUSE 10); among others.”
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
