{"id":2334,"date":"2021-10-13T16:03:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-13T16:03:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2334"},"modified":"2021-10-13T16:03:17","modified_gmt":"2021-10-13T16:03:17","slug":"senate-reviews-opposition-to-e-transmission-of-election-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/senate-reviews-opposition-to-e-transmission-of-election-results\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate Reviews Opposition to E-Transmission of Election Results"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Senate on Tuesday, 12<sup>th<\/sup> October recommitted its version of the Electoral Bill to plenary and approved new provisions, replacing its initial conditional provision of electronic transmission of election results. Clause 52 of the version of the bill that it earlier passed had subjected the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to first seeking confirmation of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) that it has adequate and secure capacity for e-transmission of election results, with the added requirement that this must be approved by the National Assembly. Specifically, clause 52 had provided in sub-clause 3 that: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThe Commission may\nconsider electronic transmission of results provided that the national coverage\nis adjudged to be adequate and secured by the Nigerian Communications\nCommission (NCC) and approved by the National Assembly.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This clause was widely criticised\nacross the country by citizens and electoral stakeholders who felt that the\nNational Assembly was seeking to hinder INEC\u2019s constitutionally guaranteed\nindependence. Sub-clause 3 has however now been deleted in the recommittal of\nthe Senate bill. The new amendment has now given INEC powers to determine the\nprocedure for voting at elections and transmission of results. It modified the\nprevious clause 2 in the Senate version of the bill to provide as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201c<em>Subject to section 63 of this Bill,\nvoting at an election and transmission of results under this Bill shall be in\naccordance with the procedure determined by the Commission.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is however instructive to note\nthat the recommitted bill substitutes the word <em>\u201ctransmit\u201d<\/em> in clause 63 (5) with the word <em>\u201ctransfer\u201d.<\/em> According to the Senate, this is\nalso to enable physical transmission of results. It is unclear at this time\nwhich of the two versions of clause 63 (5) in the Senate and the House, the\nharmonisation committee will accept. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other new amendments made by the\nSenate to its version of the bill are as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clause 43: Insertion of \u201cElectronic Voting\nMachine\u201d in subsections (1) and (3). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Clause 87: <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Amendment\nto subsection (1) by substituting with a new subsection which reads \u201c<em>A political party\nseeking to nominate candidates for elections under this Bill shall hold direct\nprimaries for aspirants to all elective positions, which shall be monitored by\nthe Commission.<\/em>\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Insertion\nof a new subsection (3) which reads \u201c<em>the procedure for the nomination of\ncandidates by political parties for various elective positions by direct\nprimaries shall ensure that all aspirants are given equal opportunities of\nbeing voted for by members of the party and given opportunity to have agents\nfor the purpose of monitoring the primaries.<\/em>\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Insertion\nof a new subsection (4) which reads \u201c<em>The procedure adopted for the\ndirect primaries shall be spelt out in a guideline to be issued by the\npolitical party and filed with the Commission at least 14 days before the\nprimary election.\u201d<\/em><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Insertion\nof a new subsection (5) which reads \u201c<em>A political party shall maintain\nregister of its members and provide in the guideline for the conduct of the\nprimaries that the register of its members shall be used for accreditation for\nthe primaries<\/em>.\u201d <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Insertion\nof a new subsection (6) which reads, \u201c<em>The Commission shall deploy\npersonnel to monitor the primaries in all the centers where the direct\nprimaries are held.<\/em>\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Insertion\nof a new subsection (7) which reads \u201c<em>Every aspirant cleared by the party\nto contest at the primary shall be entitled to a copy of the guideline not\nlater than 14 days before the conduct of the primaries.<\/em>\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Amendment\nto subsection (8) by deleting \u201c<em>High Court of a State of FCT<\/em>\u201d. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The provision of clause 87 on the\nmode of political party primaries was another point of divergence in the\nversions of the Electoral Bill passed by the two houses of the National\nAssembly. While the Senate had provided for both direct and indirect primaries,\nthe House of Representatives provided for direct primaries. With the\nrecommittal of the bill by the Senate, it has amended its version to provide\nfor only direct primaries, as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Senate on Tuesday, 12th October recommitted its version of the Electoral Bill to plenary and approved new provisions, replacing its initial conditional provision of electronic transmission of election results. Clause 52 of the version of the bill that it earlier passed had subjected the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to first seeking confirmation of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[419],"class_list":["post-2334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-senate-reviews-opposition-to-e-transmission-of-election-results"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2334"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2339,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334\/revisions\/2339"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}