Fred Itua, Abuja
There are renewed hopes that the new Electoral Act amendment Bill would contain the much expected electronic-voting and direct transmission of results from polling units to central database.
The Senate concluded debate on the general principles of the Bill, yesterday, sending strong signals that it may be passed into law before end of the year.
The Senate also referred the Electoral Reform Bill to its committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) demanding it reports back within four weeks.
The new Bill seeks to strengthen internal democracy, reduce the cost of politics, widen political participation and the conduct of free fair and credible elections through technological innovations and an electronic database.
Presenting the lead debate on the Bill, Deputy President, Ovie Omo-Agege, who is its sponsor, drew the attention of lawmakers to the fact that the duty of the National Assembly to protect constitutional order “starts with ensuring that our elections are free, fair and credible.
“To achieve this, our electoral laws must be sound and up to date in order to respond adequately to new challenges that come with changing times and human behaviors.
“The Bill is a response in part to a plethora of Supreme Court decisions directly or indirectly calling upon the National Assembly to act. The apex court has persistently done this regarding INECs introduction of modern technologies into the electoral process, especially accreditation of voters.
“The Act clearly forbids members of political parties from taking up employment in INEC, mandates INEC to publish voters register for public scrutiny at every registration area and on its website at least seven days before a general election, mandates INEC to suspend an election in order to allow a political party that lost its candidate before or during an election to conduct a fresh primary to elect a replacement or new candidate.”
It also mandated INEC “to accommodate new technologies in the accreditation of voters during elections, as repeatedly called for by the Supreme Court, define over-voting to include situations where total votes cast exceed total number of accredited voters, provide greater clarity and transparency in the process of reaching the final announcement of election results, starting with sorting of ballots, counting of votes, etc”
It also prevents INEC from shutting down the central data base until all petitions arising from the elections are determined by a tribunal or court.
Omo-Agege also explained that “the amendment mandates INEC to record and keep relevant detailed information of results sheets, ballot papers and other sensitive electoral materials used in an election, with clear consequences for violation, enact a new Section 87 on nomination of candidates by parties for elections by prescribing maximum fees payable by aspirants and restricting nomination criteria strictly to relevant provisions of the Constitution.”
A key aspect of the Bill is its provision for electronic voting.
The Bill repealed Section 52(2) of the principal Act and introduced a new subsection (2) which reads: “The Commission may adopt electronic voting or any other method of voting in any election it conducts as it may deem fit.”
The Bill also compelled INEC to operate an electronic database into which all results in an election should be transmitted.
It also stipulates that data of accredited voters must be transmitted to the central data base upon the conclusion of the accreditation of voters which would be done through the use of the card reader.
“At the end of accreditation of voters, the presiding officer shall transmit the voter accreditation data by secure mobile electronic communication to the central database of the commission kept at the national headquarters of the commission.
“Any presiding officer who contravenes this provision shall be liable, on conviction, to a minimum of imprisonment of at least five years without an option of fine.
“In respect of data of accreditation of voters, including polling unit results, for an election, the commission shall not shut down its central database kept at its national headquarters until all election petitions and appeals pertaining to that election are heard and determined by a tribunal or court.”
On the specific provisions for the adoption of the central database, the Bill seeks amendment of section 65 of the Electoral Act 2010 by introducing a “National Electronic Register of Election Results.”
It states: “The commission shall compile, maintain and update on a continuous basis, a register of election results to be known as the National Electronic Register of Election Results which shall be a database of election results from each polling unit, including collated results of each election conducted by the commission.
“National Electronic Register of Election Results shall be kept by the commission at its national headquarters and any person or political party may obtain from the commission, on payment of reasonable fees as may be determined by the commission, a certified true copy of any election result kept in the National Electronic Register of Election Results for the federation, a state, local government, area council, ward or polling unit, as the case may be and the certified true copy may be in printed or electronic format.”
It was learnt that many lawmakers were not comfortable with the additional clause which permits INEC to use any other method it deemed fit and may delete that option during the consideration of the bill.
The extant Electoral law completely prohibits the use of electronic voting.
The reform Bill has also slashed the nomination fees charged by political parties.
The Bukola Saraki-led National Assembly had attempted the electoral reform but failed to get the presidential approval at the end.