Whither The Electoral Act?

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, announced on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 at a one-day Public Hearing on the National Electoral Offences Commission (Establishment) Bill 2021, organised by the Senate Committee on INEC in Abuja, that the 2023 general elections will hold on Saturday, 18th February, 2023, which is exactly one year, nine months, two weeks and six days or 660 days from today.
Promising to release the timetable and schedule of activities for the elections after the forthcoming Anambra State governorship election on November 6 this year, the INEC boss underlined the need for “clarity and certainty about the electoral legal framework to govern the election “going forward but expressed the hope that the “National Assembly will do the needful”.
There are many Nigerians who believe that the country was denied the opportunity of a freer, fairer and more credible electoral process in 2019 when President Muhammadu Buhari, on Friday, December 7, for the fourth and final time declined to assent to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018 with the lame excuse that the 2019 electoral process may be disrupted if he signed the bill into law.
Of course, the dominant opinion around the country was that the President’s decision was ill-advised and selfish with many calling the National Assembly to veto the President’s assent. Indeed, many believed that the amendment proposed by the bill was aimed at making the 2019 general elections credible with the use of the smart card reader and electronic transmission of election results from the polling units as some of the innovations that would have been introduced to minimize electoral fraud and sanitise the system.
However, with the 2019 general elections gone, there was high expectation amongst Nigerians that the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill will be among the first legislative items to be attended to and dispensed with by the 9th National Assembly, especially against the background that the legislative chambers are hugely populated by members of the 8th Assembly that passed the ill-fated bill.
As it has turned out, the bill that seeks to repeal the Electoral Act 2010 and enact the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2020 (HB 981) only passed for second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives on Tuesday. November 24, 2020.
Leading the debate at plenary, Hon. Aisha Duku (APC Gombe) outlined a number of challenges the bill seeks to address including a the restriction for qualification for elective office to relevant provisions of the 1999 Constitution (As Amended(; (b) the use of Smart Card Readers (SCR) and other technological devices in elections and political party primaries; (c) The time line for the submission of candidates and criteria for substitution of candidates; (d) The limit of campaign expenses; and (e) Addressing the omission of names of candidates or logo of political parties.
Accordingly, some of the sections of the Act to be altered include: 1. Section 3 (2) (a) which deals with Time line for the Release of Funds to the Commission; 2. Section 2b (3) (4) which deals with the Conduct and Postponement of Election in an Emergency 3. Section 28 (1) which deals with the Oath of Neutrality by Election Officers; 4. Section 30 which deals with The Notice of Election; 5. Section 34 which deals with the Publication of Nomination; 6. Section 36 (1) which deals with the Death of candidate; 7. Section 38 which deals with the failure of nomination; 8. Section 42 (1) (2) which deals with the Establishment of Poling Units; 9. Section 49 (1) (2) which deals with the issue of Ballot paper; 10. Section 52 (1) which deals with the Conduct of poll by open secret ballot; 11. Section 85 which deals with Notice of convention, Congress, etc; 12. Section 90 (1) which deals with the power to Limit Contribution to a political party; 13. Section 91 which deals with the Limitation on Election Expenses; and 14. Section 99 which deals with the Limitation on Political Broadcast and campaign by political parties.
Hon. Duku who expressed the hope that the bill will plug loopholes in our electoral system by amending over 300 causes (including new provisions) of the Electoral Act 2010, also noted that “In addition to this are concerns that the legal framework on certain issues should be well settled ahead of the 2023 elections such as the use of technological devices like the Smart Card Reader and electronic voting system”.
The President of the Nigerian Senate, Ahmad Lawan raised the hope of Nigerians for an amended Electoral Act that could advance the cause of the political system when he disclosed that the National Assembly would pass the Independent National Electoral Commission Act 2020 in June, 2021. While answering questions after delivering a lecture at the National Defence College, Course 29 Programme in Abuja on February 2, this year, Senator Lawan said, “we are currently working on the Electoral Act. We want to amend it and we intend to achieve the amendment before June or thereabout”, adding that “our intention in the National Assembly with this is to further sanitise the electoral environment and empower the seamless, transparent and very open sort of election where 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”.
Mr Lawan who also hinted at the setting up of an Electoral Offences Commission through the amendment bill in the works, expressed the confidence that the 2023 general elections will experience significant reduction in electoral violence after the passage of the legal framework that will govern the conduct of the polls. “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”, he said, adding that “ I also believe, and that is the position of the National Assembly, that we should have the Electoral Offences Commission so that people who are involved in electoral violence will be prosecuted. I believe that it will go a long way in reducing and minimizing all these tendencies of people taking laws into their hands”.
The Tide strongly believes in the efficacy of the proposed amendments to largely address the debilitating challenges that have crippled our electoral system and therefore urges the National Assembly to leave nothing to chance in ensuring that it keeps absolute faith with the June, 2021 deadline it has set for itself to pass the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
We believe that this will not only rule out any excuse of closeness to election as canvassed by the President the last time but will also create the opportunity for the law to be test-run in the forthcoming Anambra State governorship election in November this year prior to its full scale application in 2023.