The Senate on Wednesday passed a bill to amend Nigeria’s Electoral Act, strengthening the country’s electoral system and aligning it with current realities.
The amendment bill was approved after lawmakers engaged in over five hours of debate and clause-by-clause consideration.
The clauses were examined at the Committee of the Whole, after which the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced their passage following a majority voice vote.
Among the major decisions taken by the lawmakers was the rejection of the proposal to make the electronic transmission of election results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IREV) mandatory after vote counting.
Instead, the Senate retained the provision in the 2022 Electoral Act which allows election results to be transmitted to the collation centre.
The lawmakers also reviewed the electoral timetable by reducing the period within which INEC must publish the notice of election from 360 days to 180 days. Similarly, the deadline for political parties to submit their candidate lists was shortened from 120 days to 90 days before the election.
To curb the growing menace of vote buying, the committee amended Section 22 of the Act to impose stiffer penalties, increasing the fine for offenders from ₦500,000 to ₦5 million.
Details later…
