ELECTORAL ACT: AGBAKOBA FUMES, TELLS SARAKI, DOGARA, WHAT TO DO TO PRESIDENT BUHARI
ELECTORAL
ACT: AGBAKOBA FUMES, TELLS SARAKI, DOGARA, WHAT TO DO TO PRESIDENT BUHARI
A senior lawyer, Olisa Agbakoba, has
written the National Assembly, demanding that they override President Muhammadu
Buhari on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
In a letter addressed to the Senate
President, Dr Bukola Saraki and the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
Yakubu Dogara, and obtained by DAILY POST, the senior lawyer said that Buhari’s
decision to decline assent to the bill ‘makes no sense.’
Agbakoba also stated that the 2018
Electoral Amendment bill will help to improve the credibility of the elections
and also give a legal basis for INEC to deploy electronic technology in 2019
elections.
The letter he personally signed and
entitled, overriding the presidential decline to assent to 2018 ELECTORAL ACT,
reads in full:
”The decision of the President to
withhold Assent in respect of a Bill to enact a Law to amend the Electoral Act
makes no sense. The Final draft Bill considered by NASS, was agreed with the
President, precisely to avoid challenges, such as now occurred.
The President states that part of the
reason he has withheld Assent is to avoid confusion as to the applicable legal
framework for 2019 Elections and the administrative capacity of INEC to cope
with the new Electoral Act, as it is all too close to 2019 elections.
Distinguished and Honourable Members
will recall that the major amendment to 2018 Electoral Act relates to
electronic technology for the conduct of the 2019 elections.
The 2015 elections were partly
conducted by INEC, using smart cards (card readers) but the Supreme Court held
that smart cards are not allowed, not been included in the Electoral Act 2010.
The 2015 elections were also partly conducted by INEC using Incident forms; in
effect smart cards and Incident Forms were both used to conduct 2015 elections.
Distinguished and Honourable Members of NASS, will recall that there was a lot
of controversy about the use of Incident Forms as it enabled non accredited
persons to vote, questioning the credibility of the elections.
In order to remove constraints that
will impact the credibility of future elections, such as 2019, the Electoral
Act 2010, was amended by the 2018 Bill, to formalize the legal basis of the
Smart Cards which was already in use for elections by INEC anyway. It will be
recalled that the Supreme Court declared use of Smart Cards as contrary to the
Electoral Act 2010, so the
2018 amendment is intended to give INEC
a legal basis to use Smart Cards and Electronic Technology.
The 2018 Bill also introduced the
extremely important procedure of transmitting results of votes from Polling
Units by electronic means. Electronic transmission will remove rigging and
enhance the credibility of the Vote Count. INEC says it is familiar with the
amendments contained in the 2018 Electoral Bill. INEC has used smart cards at
all elections from 2015.
INEC has submitted an election budget
which provides for Smart Cards and transmission equipment. The President claims
that part of the reason for withholding Assent, is that INEC will not have
enough time to become familiar with the 2018 Bill and that a new Act will
generate confusion.
This is simply incorrect and flies in
the face of INEC’s announcement that it will not use Incident Forms or manual voting
in 2019 elections. In other words, INEC is ready to deploy electronic
technology for 2019 elections, and only requires that the Electoral Act
provides a legal framework.
The 2018 Amendments will help to
improve the credibility of our Elections and also give legal basis for INEC to
deploy electronic technology in 2019 elections, following doubts cast by the
Supreme Court about the legality of the use of card readers because it was not
provided in the old Electoral Act of 2010.
Distinguished and Honourable Members of
NASS, are please please urged to override Mr President and enact 2018 Electoral
Act.”
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