Constitution Review Debate: Reps To Use Voting Machine

The House of Representatives will use its abandoned voting machine for the clause-by-clause deliberations in the constitution review debate.

Rep. Ita Enang (PDP-Akwa Ibom), the Chairman, House Committee on Rules and Business, made this known to journalists in Abuja on Friday.

He said that the usage of the machine became imperative because of the importance attached to the constitution review exercise.

“The cards are coded and all the connections have been checked; mock voting will be carried out at each sitting to see the way it will operate before we resume.

“There are 360 members and you have to take five to 10 minutes to make sure the machine works and make sure there is no error of giving the vote of one person to another person,’’ he said.

Enang said that the House ought to have resumed on April 13 but the break was extended by a week to enable the engineers to conclude their work on the voting machine.

He added that the engineers would also ensure that the machine was in a perfect working condition before the resumption of the House.

“Giving the proposal, we gave them an extra week so that they could finish the machine’s configuration and test it,’’ he said.

When the House resumes, members are expected to consider the recommendations of the ad-hoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution and the electoral reform reports, currently being scrutinised by individual members.

In order to minimise controversies, each member would vote on the amended clauses, marking a sharp departure from the controversial voice voting of lawmakers, which has been the practice in the National Assembly since 1999.