Senate Reject e-Voting, Single Day Elections

The Senate said it will not legislate on electronic voting for now, but rather will allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) the latitude to commence electronic voting when it is ready with the appropriate capacity and technology to do so.

This was as the lawmakers turned down proposal for all elections to be held in one day across the country.

The Senate also voted to remove the powers to appoint INEC Secretary from the commission’s chairman and place same on the President, which will in turn be ratified by the red chamber.

Senators took these positions Monday while considering three different bills on the amendment to the Electoral Act 2010. The bills passed however, second reading yesterday.

The bills were sponsored by Senators Ike Ekweremadu,(Enugu West), Abu Ibrahim (Katsina South) and Alkali Jajere (Yobe South).

On the issue of holding all elections in one day, which was proposed by Senator Ibrahim, almost all the senators who contributed to the debate were of the opinion that such action may end chaos.

Leading presentation on the bill, Ibrahim said that it falls in line with global practices and that Nigeria should move in that direction.

The lawmaker noted that unlike staggered elections, which is not cost- effective and efficient and very expensive, one day election as practiced in countries like Ghana, Sierra Leon, the United States of America and Venezuela would be the best for Nigeria.

To buttress his point, Ibrahim said the staggered 2011 elections and other previous elections, which cost the country huge sums of money to execute, would reduced the country’s expenses if the one day election is adopted

Opposing the proposal, senators argued that Nigeria is too large and that the electoral umpire lacks necessary logistics to cope with one day election for the country.

Senator Barnabas Gemade for instance while stating his experience in Kenya, said it took the Independent National Electoral Commission of Kenya seven days to collate and announce the outcome of the single day election, with a voting population of 4.3 million and wondered how Nigeria with a voting population of 74 million could cope with such a process.

Consequently, senators voted for staggered elections.

On the issue of electronic voting, most of the senators who contributed to the debate, also proposed by Senator Ibrahim, argued that for now, it is obvious that the INEC lacks the necessary capacity and technology to conduct elections electronically and that as a result, it would be wrong to compel the electoral umpire to deploy a system, which it cannot handle.

In particular, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe told the senate that he was at a recent public event with the INEC chairman, Professor Atahiru Jega, where the chairman stated clearly that INEC was not ready and indeed does not have all it takes to conduct electronic voting in the country for now.

Abaribe said, “Let’s give INEC what it says it needs to be able to conduct a credible election and not something it cannot handle.”

Ekweremadu proposed an amendment of the Electoral Act on behalf of the Senate Committee on the review of the 1999 constitution. In particular, Ekweremadu sought for a renewable tenure of four years for INEC Secretary.

According to him, the extant tenure only empowers the commission to appoint a secretary without stating how long such a person can remain in office.

However, while debating the proposal, senators came to the conclusion that it was wrong to allow INEC chairman to be the appointing officer for the office of the secretary of the commission.

The lawmakers came to the conclusion that given the importance of the office of the secretary to the commission, the appointment to the office should be made by the President, alongside the commissioners subject to the ratification of the senate.

The bill by Ekweremadu also sought to increase the number of days provided for INEC to conduct re-election from seven days to 21 days, receive and treat application for transfer of voters’ cards from 30 to 60 days as well as receive and treat applications for the duplicate voters’ cards from 30 days to 60 days.

After extensive debate on the three bills and the necessary amendments, the three bills passed the second reading and were committed to third reading.

INEC has indicated its resolve to strengthen the country’s electoral system by extending voting rights to Nigerians in the diaspora.

INEC said it will not relent in its aspiration to make Nigeria’s electoral system more inclusive by accommodating such classes of Nigerians.

Jega, chairman of the commission,  gave the assurance when he accepted an invitation on behalf of INEC by the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia to observe voting by Indonesians in Nigeria, as part of the Asian country’s parliamentary elections.

Kayode Idowu, chief press secretary to the INEC Chairman,  said diaspora voting by Indonesians in Nigeria will hold on Saturday, April 5, in Lagos and Sunday, April 6th, in Abuja, at the country’s Consular offices.

According to him, the voting will be conducted as part of the parliamentary elections in mainland Indonesia scheduled for April 9, 2014.