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Fri, Mar

Senate Passes Electoral Act Amendment Bill At Second Reading

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Electoral Act amendment bill which is seen as the only legal framework to put Nigerian election process on the right track has received a boost as the Senate has passed the bill at the second reading.

The bill titled “A bill for an Act to Amend the Electoral Act No. 6. 2010 and for other related matters, 2019 (SB. 122)”, was sponsored by, Ovie Omo-Agege, the Deputy Senate President (APC Delta) and co-sponsored by his colleague, Abubakar Kyari (APC Borno).

 

The bill was first introduced at the red chamber for the amendment on 29th October seek to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to accommodate new technologies of card reader in the accreditation of voters during election exercise.

 

The bill also seeks to compel political parties to charge lesser money on their various nomination forms for wider participation as well as empowering the party agents to inspect original electoral materials prior to commencement of the election.

 

In the same vane, the bill also considers the electoral empire to suspend election in an event a political party lost its candidate to death before or during the election exercise to give the party a room to conduct a fresh primary election to replace the dead one.

 

More so, the bill also proposes the INEC to publish voter register at every polling unit for public scrutiny as well as prohibiting any member of a political party to take up appointment with INEC in whatever guise.

 

Omo-Agege in his debate while pushing the bill said the bill was in fulfillment of the ninth Assembly promise to fulfill its legislative Agenda in electoral reforms.

 

He added the bill if successfully passed will strengthen the Nations electoral process in line with the best global practice while displacing lacuna in the present electoral laws.

 

In a separate contribution, Senators who aligned themselves with the bill include; Michael Nnachi (PDP- Ebonyi South), Abba Moro (PDP- Benue South) and Ibikunle Amosun (APC- Ogun Central).

 

The Senators stressed the need for the Ninth Assembly to speedily approve the bill to avoid repeating mistake of the 8th Senate of submitting late to the Presidency for assent.

 

Meanwhile, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, who presided over the session, put the question to voice vote and it was unanimously approved.

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