The Senate has passed the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018 (SB 231 and 234) which seeks to improve the quality of elections in Nigeria.

Presenting the report, Chairman of the Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Sen. Suleiman Nazif (APC: Bauchi) informed lawmakers that the Bill was re-introduced following President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to withhold assent to the Bill due to the following observations:

1. That the amendment to the sequence of the elections in Section 25 of the Principal Act may infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organize, undertake and supervise all elections in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule of the Constitution;
2. That the amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete 2 crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process; and
3. That the amendment to Section 152 (3)- (5) of the Principal Act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over Local Government elections.

In line with aforementioned observations, Sen. Nazif explained that the Committee resolved to:

1. Delete Sections 25 and 152 (3)-(5) in the proposed Bill based on the President’s observations;
2. Retain Section 138 (c) and (d) as contained in the Principal Act;
3. Further amend Section 49 by including a new subsection (3) which provides that “ Where a Smart Card Reader deployed for accreditation of voters fails to function in any unit and a new card reader is not deployed, the election in that unit shall be cancelled and another election shall be scheduled within 24 hours”; and
4. Amend Section 140 to include a new subsection (c) which states that “Where the election is postponed due to omission of a political party’s name or logo, the Commission’s Officer responsible for such printing of party names or logos commits an offence and is liable to a fine of Two Million Naira (N2, 000,000) or imprisonment for 2 years or both”.

In addition, Sen Nazif noted that although INEC had submitted its observations for consideration, the Committee unanimously agreed to deliberate on the Commission’s remarks in any subsequent amendment as the Senate and the House had already harmonized positions on the Bill. However, the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu, who chaired the session, mandated the Committee to make copies of INEC’s observation available to lawmakers for their scrutiny.

Click here to view the full report of the Committee