On Wednesday, 30th November the Senate resumed consideration of the report of its Committee on INEC on a Bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act No. 6 2010 and for other related matters. After a clause by clause consideration of the bill, it adopted the committee proposal that political parties will conduct fresh primaries in the circumstance where the nominated candidate of a political dies after the commencement of poll but before the announcement of the final result and declaration of a winner.
It will be recalled that an earlier consideration of the committee’s report in November was stalled after lawmakers failed to arrive at a consensus on the procedure to adopt where a nominated candidate for an election dies after the commencement of poll but before the announcement of final result.
The Senate further approved the committee’s recommendation that INEC may suspend an election from holding for a period not exceeding 21 days after it is certain of the death of the nominated candidate. However, political parties whose nominated candidate dies must conduct their fresh direct primaries within 14 days of the death and submit the name of the new candidate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) where it intends to continue to participate in the election.
In addition, the also approved the recommendation that incidence forms would be used to authenticate voters where a smart card reader fails and where up to 10% of the total number of registered voters in a polling unit have not been accredited.
Further consideration of the bill have been suspended to another legislative day.
