The Senate on Tuesday 6th December 2016 resumed consideration on a Bill to Amend the Electoral Act No 6 2010 and for Other Related Matters and agreed with the following proposed amendments to Section 87 of the Principal Act:
• That a political party shall not exceed the following fees, charges and dues to be imposed on aspirants or candidate for the purpose of nomination for an election
– One Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N150,000) for a Ward Councillorship aspirant in the FCT;
– Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N250,000) for a House of Assembly aspirant;
– Five Hundred Thousand Naira (N500,000) for a House of Assembly aspirant;
– One Million Naira (N1,000,000) for a House of Representatives’ aspirant;
– Two Million Naira (N 2,000,000) for a Senatorial aspirant;
– Five Million naira (N5,000,000) for a Governorship aspirant; and
– Ten Million Naira (N10, 000,000) for a Presidential aspirant.
Presently, fees, dues and other charges to be paid by an aspirant are not provided for in the extant Electoral Act.
• That every political party shall publish the venues, dates, times, guidelines, procedures and other relevant information of its primaries, conventions or any event conveyed for the purpose of nominating candidates for the party in, at least two (2) national newspapers at least, ten (10) days before the date of the event to nominate candidates for the party. The Senate further adopted that two (2) days would be required for the requisite notice to be published where a primary is rescheduled. No provision for this is included in the Electoral Act.
• That INEC would monitor the election of delegates for indirect primaries of a political party and endorse or certify the results of every delegates election. In addition, the endorsed or certified list shall be used for the purpose of the primaries. Section 87 (7) of the Electoral Act 2010 does not provide for the monitoring, endorsement or certification of the Commission of delegates elections.
• That any INEC official who issues a false report of a primary election commits an offence and would be liable on conviction to imprisonment for one year or a fine of N1,000,000 or both. This is a new provision that is not provided in section 87 of the Principal Act.
Further deliberations on the bill have been deferred to another legislative day.
