..Approves Electronic Voting
…Says Collated Results to be Electronically Transmitted
The Senate Thursday passed amendments to
the Electoral Act 2010, approving the use of
electronic voting in future elections.
It also approved that election results should
be electronically transmitted to collation
centers.
The passage of bill followed the
consideration of the report of the Senate
Committee on the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) on a Bill for an
Act to amend the Electoral Act No. 6, 2010
and for other related matters (SB 231 and
SB 234).
Major highlights of the new bill include
provision for the use of electronic voting by
INEC during future elections, use of Card
Reader and also gives INEC power to modify
the voting process if there is a challenge.
The Senate also approved a provision to
enable INEC transmit the result of elections
electronically in an encrypted and secured
manner to prevent hacking.
To address the incident that happened in
Kogi State, during last gubernatorial election,
the amended Electoral Act provides that if a
candidate dies before results of elections are
declared, the results will not only remain
valid but belongs to the political party that
lost its candidate.
It also added that in such a scenario, the
INEC should suspend the elections for 21
days during which period the affected
political party will conduct fresh primaries to
choose a new candidate.
The Bill also gives political parties power to
adopt direct or indirect primaries in choosing
their flag bearers, while qualification of
disqualification of candidates for elections
will be solely based on the Constitution.
In his comments after the adoption of the
report by the Red Chamber, Senate
President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki,
thanked his colleagues for a job well done
and expressed optimism that the Bill would
further improve the nation’s electoral system
and also contribute to good governance.
Saraki said: “Distinguished colleagues, let
me thank all of you for this job well done. I
want to particularly thank the members of
the Committee on INEC and particularly the
former chairman of the Committee,
Abubakar Kyari, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege
and all the members of the committee who
have worked very hard to ensure the
passage of this very important bill which
addresses our electoral process and goes on
to strengthen our democracy.
“We have touched on new areas which I
believe will improve the credibility of our
elections and by so doing, definitely improve
our democracy and good governance.
“Most importantly, I think, are some of the
new sections we have added, in the area of
technology, the smart card reader, and
particularly the area of collation which has
been an area of great concern.
“Collation of results after the polling units
and some of the additions we put on the
electronic way by which the compilation of
results can be done, I think will go a long
way to reduce some of the irregularities we
have seen before.
“This is a great work you have been able to
put together today and I want to commend
everybody. I am also happy that we have
passed the amendments very early. My
concern has always been that if we don’t do
it now, it will get more difficult as we get
blowed to the 2019 elections.
“We hope that with this Bill that we have
passed, very soon, we will sit together with
the House of Representatives to be able to
get the copy to the President for assent.
“I think when signed into law, it will enable
INEC to have something to work early
enough. I think what we have done today will
really put our electoral law among the best
that we have and it will go a long way in
improving our electoral process,” he said.
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