Furore over Electoral Act Amendment Bill

Emameh Gabriel writes that the National Assembly is in the news again as controversy over the Electoral Act Amendment (2021) may lead to a stormy session today

Disturbed by the violence, ballot box snatching, bloodshed and other electoral malfeasance that have overtime characterised elections in the Nigeria, the Nigerian Senate in 2019 initiated fresh moves to address these challenges through a rejig of the Electoral Act. The move rekindled the hopes and confidence of Nigerian electorates on the Ahmed Lawan-led National Assembly.

The clamour from key political stakeholders and the informed public is that until some of these challenges are addressed head on, elections in the country will continue to record needless setbacks and human casualties.

The sanctity of the ballot, credibility of the electoral process and the integrity of INEC officials, have constantly come under intense debate since the return of democracy in 1999.

Consequently, a Bill for an Act to ensure that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) adopts electronic voting method for future elections was introduced and the Bill scaled through a second reading without hitches.

The new legislation became a major component of the Electoral Act Amendment, which billions of naira was voted for. With the amendment, it was expected that INEC would operate an electronic database into which all results in an election should be transmitted.

The Bill entitled, “A Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act No.6 2010 and for Other Related Matters, 2019(SB.122) was sponsored by the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege, and Co-sponsored by Senator Abubakar Kyari, seeks the amendment of Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2010 by introducing a “National Electronic Register of Election Results.

In clear terms, the new amendment stipulates that data of accredited voters must be transmitted to the central data base upon the conclusion of the accreditation of voters which would be done through the use of the card reader.

The Bill also stipulates that, “At the end of accreditation of voters, the presiding officer shall transmit the voter accreditation data by secure mobile electronic communication to the central database of the commission kept at the national headquarters of the commission.

“Any presiding officer who contravenes this provision shall be liable, on conviction, to a minimum of imprisonment of at least five years without an option of fine.”

It prevents INEC from shutting down the central data base until all petitions arising from the elections are determined by a tribunal or court.

Omo-Agege said it was a response in part to a plethora of Supreme Court decisions directly or indirectly calling upon the National Assembly to act.

Before the 2019 general election there was loud clamour for President Muhammadu Buhari to pass the electoral act which was to guide the conduct of the elections which he eventually declined citing ‘uncertainty about the legislation to govern the process.

The president had declined assent to the Bill in previous times, citing ‘drafting issues.’ While supporters of the President have interpreted his action as a plot to change the election sequence, which they say would tilt the electoral landscape against him, his opponents argue that the President and the ruling party are just afraid of a free and fair election.

THISDAY recalls that the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan had on several occasions assured Nigerians that the new amendment would bring significant reduction of violence during the 2023 elections because of the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act.

The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, said the 2023 General Elections would record significant reduction in electoral violence after the passage of the amended Electoral Act in June by the National Assembly.

He said the Electoral Act under amendment by the Ninth National Assembly will provide for an Electoral Offences Commission, saddled with responsibility of prosecuting electoral offenders.

He said the Electoral Amendment Bill, when passed and signed into law, would, among other things, empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct transparent elections in Nigeria.

“Let me give some commendation to the National Assembly for continuously working on the Electoral Act to provide for a better Electoral environment in Nigeria.

“All the improvement we have added was as a result of legislation passed by the National Assembly, and of course, supported by the Executive.

“But in addition, we are currently working on the electoral act, we want to amend it and we intend to achieve the amendment before June or thereabout.

“Our intention in the National Assembly with this is to further sanitise the electoral environment, and empower the election management body to conduct seamless, transparent and very open sort of election where a winner is very happy that he is a winner and a loser will be glad that he lost in a very fair contest.

“So, we are working on this and we hope that the 2023 general elections will see less of electoral violence because the law itself would have been further improved,” Lawan had assured Nigerians.

Sadly, this provision may have died prematurely, even if lawmakers in the National Assembly have not made their intentions known, the atmosphere and body language of lawmakers from the opposition party speak volume of what should be expected.

As lawmakers prepare for a showdown in Tuesday plenary

The provision, which some members of the Kabiru Gaya-led Senate committee on INEC described as strange, simply reads: “Voting at an election under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedures determined by the commission, which may include electronic voting provided that the Commission shall not transmit results of the election by electronic means.”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had adopted the electronic transmission of results in some previous elections to the admiration of many stakeholders, particularly in the September 2020 Edo State governorship polls.

THISDAY gathered that some members of the Senate Committee on INEC, are set to raise objection to what they have described as alien opinion the people and INEC’s recommendations for itch free elections in the future.

The INEC had in the past expressed its determination to adopt electronic voting, including the transmission of results by the same means.

Consequently, INEC chairman, Prof Mahmud Yakubu, had urged the National Assembly to amend the Constitution and the Electoral Act to make provision for electronic collation and transmission of election results.

He had argued that the manual collation, which is enshrined in the laws, is too cumbersome and expensive.

Explaining the importance of technology, he said: “We have to also address our electoral process, which is manual. It is too expensive and cumbersome. The process of collating results is sometimes chaotic because the law says that you must write results manually and collate them manually right from the polling unit to the ward, from the ward to the local government, then, the state and from the state to the national level, in the case of the presidential election.

“A lot has been achieved in other climes with the simple application of technology. So, the encumbrances to the deployment of technology in the transmission of election results should be removed as part of this process.”

“Though not exhaustive, by this Bill we seek to -ensure that the Act clearly forbids members of political parties from taking up employment in INEC; mandate INEC to publish the Voters Register for public scrutiny at every Registration Area and on its website at least seven (7) days before a general election;…..

Meanwhile critics have accused the ruling APC of an attempts to rig the 2023 general election ahead of time through the manipulation of the Electoral Amendment Bill 2021.

They have objection to Section 50 (2) of the draft bill, whose consideration begins today, Tuesday at the National Assembly, which bars electronic transmission of results

Coalition of activists and Civil Society Organizations on Sunday accused the leadership of both arms of the National Assembly of attempt to short change the will of the Nigerian people by altering the proposals agreed upon at the public hearings to decide the contents of the amendment to the Electoral Act

In a joint statement released, the coalition consisting of Yiaga Africa, The Electoral Hub, Speak Out Africa Initiative, Centre for Development Alternatives Research and Studies, and 40 other groups describe it as dangerous manipulation.
They said the alteration of Section 50(2) of the amendment undermines INEC’s effort to improve the election results management regime, particularly after recent successful experienced in some of season election and that the increase on compaign financing threshold is an attpt to perpetuate undue influence of money in elections.

“It is instructive to note that following the submission of the Electoral Amendment Committee’s report, the National Assembly leadership undertook an additional review of the report to insert and reject some amendments unilaterally, without going through the established process for such insertion.

“We are concerned that the alleged final copy of the Electoral Amendment Bill, which we have reviewed, does not represent the interests of the Nigerian people and we therefore consider it a forged document that must not be substituted for our legitimate demands

QUOTE

Senators will today, Tuesday engage in a heated debate over an alleged attempt to smuggle strange Section 50(2), which completely outlaws transmission of votes by electronic means into the new Electoral Act Amendment- a situation that is already generating tension among lawmakers. The provision, which some members of the Kabiru Gaya-led Senate committee on INEC described as strange, simply reads: “Voting at an election under this Bill shall be in accordance with the procedures determined by the commission, which may include electronic voting provided that the Commission shall not transmit results of the election by electronic means