The Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki, Monday 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 even as INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, assured that all pending inconclusive elections would be concluded before the end of next month.
Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on his part canvassed that institutionalization 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 specifically 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.”
He said that the country’s electoral successes in the last general election has created the impression that “we have achieved electoral universality and integrity, but recent events and emerging issues have served as a reminder to us that there is still a lot of work to be done.”
Describing the retreat as both timely and critical, Saraki said that the Senate should be aware that more than ever before the Nigerian people wanted a responsible government whose fate, they alone can determine.
“It all starts with having a virile electoral system with impeccable integrity and universal application must be the minimum standards. We must fashion out an electoral scheme that does not disenfranchise any Nigerian, one that does not have room for ballot tampering and manipulation.
“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.
He asked the committee to consider the demand of Nigerians in the Diaspora to be included in the electoral process and the germane issue of the voting opportunity of IDPs and people living in severely challenged hard to reach areas either due to security or other unforeseen challenges.
He added, “It will be important to take another look at the role of our security personnel from the Police, to the Department of State Security and the Military. This is especially so in the light of certain revelations to the effect that the previous government had signed into law an amendment to the Electoral Act empowering the military to be used during elections for a variety of reasons.
“It should be borne in mind that the Electoral (Amendment) Act, 2015 had in fact made far reaching amendments on the role of the Police before and during elections especially the issue of holding of rallies and meetings by political parties (S.94) and the role and operational deployment of the Armed Forces during elections (S.29). These provisions were designed as an attempt to ensure the democratic character of free and fair elections.”
He said that the retreat will be expected to deliberate on and come up with a clear direction for the Senate on issue of the card reader and the desirability or otherwise of using the card reader exclusively for accreditation and voting in the electoral process.
He also talked about a framework for Independent candidature – how best to operationalise and ensure that no candidate is placed in a vulnerable or compromised position by a party or external factors but rather ensure that the electoral system provided to all equal access and a chance to aspire as they deem fit.
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.
“For example, Article 11 (2)(b) of the NPP Constitution provides that “parliamentary candidates shall be elected at least twelve (12) months before the National General Election” while Article 12 provides that the party’s primary election for the nomination of the presidential candidate shall be held not later than twenty-four (24) months from the date of the national elections”.
He described the benefits of early primaries as manifold.
He said early primaries would allow the winning candidates in the early primaries the foothold to raise sufficient campaign funds for the larger contests.
He added: “Early primaries afford parties and candidates the time to visit every part of the country/constituency.
“It also allows them to initiate and shape the national conversation about their identity and future direction, defining ideologies and manifesto.
“Early primaries will help the judiciary to conclude all pre-election litigations and assist the election management body to have ample time to plan and deliver credible elections”.
Ekweremadu further argued that with early primaries, “resources expended on conduct of bye-elections over the fielding of the wrong candidates or omission of candidates will also be drastically reduced”, adding that knowing early enough whether they have their parties’ tickets or not would also enable elected political office holders to plan ahead for life after their tenure.
The lawmaker, who also canvassed staggered primaries, said that holding primaries in different states on different dates for presidential aspirants, for instance, would “allow the optimization of the use of resources such as security forces and increases the possibility of closer scrutiny and transparency and management”.
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.
While further noting that direct primaries were the sure way of “returning power back to the people, Ekweremadu also said “Such would ensure that the process of nominating candidates is credible, transparent, fully participatory, and democratic as well as reduce electoral disputes within the party and restore confidence and internal democracy”.
Prof, Yakubu cited some challenges confronting INEC since the 2015 elections as part of the reasons for the .inconclusive elections.
The INEC boss also noted that said since the conclusion of the 2015 general election, the electoral empire had conducted a total number of 129 elections including 49 rerun elections out of the 80 nullified polls by elections petitions tribunals; 10 bye-elections in various constituencies resulting from the death of members of state and national assemblies; 68 elections in Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and two end of tenure elections in Kogi and Bayelsa States, among others.
He said that 23 election certificates were withdrawn in accordance with court rulings and such certificates re-presented to rightful winners of elections in both the Senate and House of Representatives.
He canvassed the need for an amendment to the 2010 Electoral Act with a view to ensuring that candidates whose elections are nullified as a result of improper nominations by their parties should have their certificates re-issued to the runners-up.
Doing so, he said, would save the nation the huge cost of conducting fresh elections in such circumstances.
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.
The INEC boss who accused political parties of compounding electoral challenges by failing to properly nominate candidates, recalled how some elections were cancelled because parties nominated ex-convicts, under-age candidates, certificates forgers, among other renegades in the country.
In the same vein, he asked 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. – The Nation.
