Senate Approves e-Voting, Amends Electoral Act, Okays 5-Year Jail Term For Partisan INEC Staff

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the Senate has amended the 2010 Elec­toral Act and empowered the Independent National Elector­al Commission (INEC) to conduct future polls through the electronic voting method.
The Senate also legalised the card reader electronic device introduced by INEC for voters’ accreditation in the 2015 general elections.

Similarly, the Upper Chamber addressed problems that may arise from the sudden death of the can­didate of a political party during an election, by allowing the affect­ed political party to conduct a fresh primary for a new candidate within 14 days and for INEC to within 21 days conclude the election with at­tendant transfer of votes of the de­ceased candidate to the new one.

 These were among other provi­sions contained in the 2017 Elector­al Act passed into Law by the Upper House on Thursday.
The electronic voting provisions of the Act is contained in Section 52 sub-section 2 which states that: “The Electoral Commission shall adopt electronic voting in all elec­tions or any other method of voting as may be determined by the com­mission from time to time.”
The section, however, gives INEC the discretion to use other methods of voting if it is impracticable to use e-voting in any election.
Recommended along with the e-voting in the Act is the card read­er innovation used by INEC in the 2015 general elections.
The device is legalised by the Act under Section 49 which deals with accreditation of voters, transmission of accreditation data among others.
Specifically, the Act, in Section 49, sub-section 2, states that: “The Presiding Officer shall use a smart card reader or any other technolog­ical device that may be prescribed by the Commission from time to time for the accreditation of vot­ers, to verify, confirm or authenti­cate the genuineness or otherwise of the voter’s card.”
In avoiding the scenario that played out in the November 2015 gubernatorial election in Kogi State where the death of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhaji Abubakar Audu, cre­ated a crisis within the party as re­gards who would replace him, be­fore the party settled for Yahaya Bello, the Act, in Sections 36 (3a, b and c) makes provisions for resolv­ing such impasse.
The section states: “(3a)- If after the commencement of the poll and before the announcement of the fi­nal result and declaration of a win­ner, a nominated candidate dies, (a) the Commission shall, being satis­fied of the fact of the death, suspend the election for a period not exceed­ing 21 days;
“(b) The political party whose candidate died may, if it intends to continue to participate in the elec­tion, conduct a fresh direct prima­ry within 14 days of the death of its candidate and submit a new candi­date to the Commission to replace the dead candidate; and
“(c) Subject to paragraphs (a) and (b) of this subsection, the Commis­sion shall continue with the election, announce the final result and de­clare a winner.”
Other striking provisions in the Act are Section 8 sub-sections 5 where any staff of INEC found to be a registered member of any polit­ical party is liable to an offence car­rying five-year jail term or N5mil­lion fine or both.”
Section 87 deals with nomina­tions of candidates by parties for election from councillorship to the Presidency and pegs the amount that should be collected from the aspirants by their various political parties.
The Act states that monies col­lected from aspirants by political parties for councillorship election shall not exceed N150,000; Local Government Chairman, N250,000; State House of Assembly member N500,000; House of Representa­tives’ member N1 million; Senato­rial aspirant N2 million, state gov­ernor N5 million and N10 million from a presidential aspirant.
Other provisions in the Act are guidelines specified for political parties in the election of delegates for their primary elections wheth­er direct or indirect and jurisdic­tions of courts over such primary elections.
The Act under jurisdiction of courts specifically stated that though courts can entertain cases relating or arising from the conduct of party primaries from aggrieved aspirants, it cannot stop any of the primary elections from holding.
The provisions state: “Notwith­standing the provisions of this Act or rules of a political party, an aspir­ant who complains that any of the provisions of this Act or rules of a political party has not been com­plied with in the nomination of a candidate of a political party for election, may apply to the Federal High Court or the High Court of a State or the FCT for redress.
“However, nothing in this ses­sion shall empower the courts to stop the holding of ad-hoc delegates elections, primaries or general elec­tion or the processes thereof under this Act pending the determination of the suit”.
Fielding questions from journal­ists after the plenary session, for­mer Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Abubakar Kyari, said that with the present amend­ment to the Electoral Act, Nigeri­ans would have near-perfect elec­tions in the future.