Saraki: Amended electoral law ready before 2017

 

Senate President Bukola Saraki yesterday gave a matching order to the Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to ensure that all amendments to the 2010 Electoral Act are concluded before the end of 2016.

Saraki’s directive came as INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu assured that all pending inconclusive elections would be concluded before the end of next month.

Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, on his part, canvassed that institutionalisation for early and direct primaries by political parties to make the country’s electoral process more credible and to deepen her democracy.

Saraki, Yakubu and Ekweremadu spoke at a summit on elections with the theme “Legislating for electoral reform” organised by the Senate Committee on INEC.

The summit seeks to amend the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended).

The Senate President noted that the necessity to end amendment to the Electoral Act before 2017 was informed to ensure that the amendment did not run into the electioneering period.

He noted that it becomes more difficult to amend the Act at the period of politics.

Saraki said: “I have given the matching order that we must conclude the amendment on or at the end of the 2016. My view is that once politics starts it becomes more and more difficult to amend the Act. Especially these days that politics starts early, it is my expectation that by the end of 2016 we shall have amended the Electoral Act.

“Electoral process must become routine and inviolable. This is attainable. The current National Assembly is poised to provide the missing gaps through its legislative interventions but we will be best served with the advice coming from your recommendations through the committee,”  Saraki insisted.

According to Ekweremadu, late conduct of primaries by political parties owing mainly to constitutional restrictions posed serious challenges to the electoral system, while the parties’ penchant for indirect primaries had undermined internal democracy in the political parties.

Stressing the need for Nigeria to learn from international best practices, Ekweremadu said: “In the United States of America, presidential primaries for presidential candidates start about 12 months to the election, culminating in the convention, which is usually a celebration of an already known candidate of the party.

“In Ghana, although neither the Constitution nor the Electoral Act gives any specific period for the conduct of presidential and parliamentary primaries, individual parties have provisions in their respective constitutions for early primaries.

On the imperatives of direct primaries, Ekweremadu regretted that while Section 87 (2) of the Electoral Act provides for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective positions through direct or indirect primaries, parties had always favoured indirect primaries, which, according to him, were less transparent, participatory, and democratic.

To this end, he suggested the amendment of Section 87 of the Electoral Act to make the conduct of direct primaries compulsory for all political parties, noting that presently, mandatory direct primaries only apply to the election of councillorship candidates.

Prof Yakubu cited some challenges confronting INEC since the 2015 elections as part of the reasons for the inconclusive elections.

Prof. Yakubu urged the committee to ensure the inclusion of card readers in the Electoral Act ahead of the conduct of the next general elections.

Such provision, he said, should also cover the use of other forms of technology to enable INEC have the full-fledged power to deploy any technological innovation it deems fit without any legal hindrance.

He urged the National Assembly to consider an amendment which will name a specific candidate to inherit the result of an election if a candidate at an election dies before the announcement of election result as was the case in Kogi State following the death of All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Abubakar Audu, at the November 2015 Kogi governorship election.