A Bill for an Act to Alter Section 221 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to make votes scored by Candidates during ongoing elections non- transferrable passed second reading in the House of Representatives.
Leading the debate on the general principles of the Bill at the plenary session of Tuesday, April 4th 2017, Hon. Sunday Karimi (APC: Kogi) stated that the Bill would prevent the votes cast for a candidate during elections from being hijacked or unduly transferred to another candidate of the political party.
Citing Section 221 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), which provides that “No association, other than a political party, shall canvass for vote for any candidate at any election or contribute to the funds of any political party or to the election expenses of any candidate at an election”, Hon. Karimi explained that a recent interpretation of this extant provision by the Supreme Court suggests that votes cast during elections belong solely to the Party and such votes can be appropriated to another candidate anytime the party desires to change its candidate and that this ought not to be the case.
Hon. Karimi further mentioned that the proposed amendment would ensure that the votes scored by a person duly nominated and sponsored by a political party belongs to the person so sponsored by prohibiting the party from transferring his/her votes to another candidate.
The Bill has been referred to the Special Ad-hoc Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution for further legislative input.
