Senate Adopts Committee Report On Electoral Act Amendment Bill

The Senate has adopted a report of its 7-man conference committee which worked with a similar panel in the House of Representatives to harmonize the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.

The report was adopted on Tuesday after the senate leader and chairman of the committee, Senator Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi, presented it to the upper legislative chamber.

The committees were set up in September to harmonize variances in the versions of the bill passed separately by both legislative chambers in July.

Part of the bill where the National Assembly needed to achieve concurrence had to do with the controversial issue of the electronic transmission of election results.

While the House of Representatives empowered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to determine whether or not to transmit results electronically in an election, the Senate had given that discretion to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

THE WHISTLER reported that the Senate, however, made a U-turn in October by rescinding its position which compelled INEC to seek permission from the NCC before using electronic transmission in an election.

Based on the harmonized electoral bill, political parties must now use direct primaries for picking candidates seeking elective positions on their platform.

The bill is expected to be transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent after the lower legislative chamber approves its conference committee’s report.