Proposed alterations to the 2010 Electoral Act saw the House of Representatives sharply divided last week. KAUTHAR ANUMBA-KHALEEL looks at the amendments.
Political pundits have consistently pointed out the lacuna in the country’s electoral Act and called for its review. This was especially made manifest following controversy that trailed the Kogi state gubernatorial election in 2016 after the unfortunate death of the All Progressive Congress’ candidate Audu Abubakar during the election.
To this effect, both chambers of the National Assembly, took a step in addressing these concerns by amending some sections of the 2010 Electoral Act. Notable among the amendments are: the alteration of section 9 of the principal Act by incorporating diaspora voting in the presidential elections in the country; Sections 33 and 36 to empower vice presidential and deputy governorship candidates to assume the position of candidates in the event that their principal candidate dies before the completion of an election and approval of electronic voting and the use of the card reader in future elections under the amendment of the Electoral Act, 2010.
However, the legislator’ decision at providing constitutional backing to the use of electronic card reader as a credible means of voter accreditation and voting in future elections by introducing it into the electoral Act continues aroused mixed reactions even as it tore the House of Representatives along party lines as was witnessed last week Tuesday at plenary when PDP lawmakers vehemently kicked against the amendment.
Deployed for the first time in the 2015 general elections, the card reader for the most part of it, generated controversies as some voters were either unable to perform their civic rights due to technicalities or presented challenges during the entire process. Regardless, as part of its guidelines, the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) continued to use the card to accredit voters in rerun elections even as a supreme court in its ruling on Akwa-Ibom, Rivers and Delta state gubernatorial elections, faulted the use.
It is against this backdrop that a section of the House especially PDP lawmakers refused to back it up as in their opinion, the card reader was instrumental to disenfranchising electorates and by extension, the party’s defeat in the election that brought the APC to power.
Leading the protest against the bill, Minority Leader and PDP caucus leader in the House, Hon. Leo Ogor who pointed the difference between electronic voting and card reader, posited that the card reader was nothing but an instrument used to disenfranchise Nigerian electorates, argued that contrary to the belief that the device would improve on the electoral process, the card only caused more damage to the system. He submitted that if INEC felt the need to introduce electronic voting, it should do so, but stressed that the PDP will kick against any attempt to introduce card readers into the Electoral Act.
Ogor said: “We must sit down to perfect the electronic voting in our electoral process but I’m totally against the card reader because it’s a clear instrument of rigging. The card reader is not in the best interest of Nigerians and should be thrown out while electronic voting takes the centre stage as it ‘ll benefit all and sundry.
“Card reader is an instrument of disenfranchising Nigeria. INEC should wake up to their responsibility. We should go for clear electronic voting. Any attempt to introduce the card readers into the electoral act, we will go fully against it”, Ogor warned.
Similarly, Hon. Solomon Bulus Maren while decrying the development, argued that despite arguments that the card in itself is not used to vote, it is another illegal way of voting.
“In the first place, the use of card reader is another illegal way of voting even though some people are arguing that it is not used for voting, it is only used for the accreditation of voters, but voting is not only one activity, it is a process. It starts from the verification of voters list up to the thumb printing, counting and even declaring of results. All these are parts of voting. We need to understand it in that manner before we can now begin to say that yes, we can actually allow the issue of electronic voting. Card Reader is a double edge sword”, he posited.
On his part, Hon. Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu) while recalling that the device failed to recognize many registered voters thus disenfranchising them said that the card reader put the nation’ democracy to question hence should not be used as a basis for elections.
However, chief whip, Hon. Alhassan Ado Doguwa (APC, Kano) disagreed by stressing the need to include the electronic card reader in the electoral Act, adding that it is meant to check electoral corruption in the country.
“No amount of argument can convince me that card reader is not an electronic device. The use of the card reader is a deliberate attempt to fight electoral corruption. It is a very good bill and the card reader must survive and be included in the electoral act”.
Hon. Bright Gogo, (PDP, Rivers) sees nothing wrong with the use of the card reader given that the world has gone digital and said that it will reduce fraud and introduce transparency.
“What we are all looking at is a credible election and if we must have a credible election, then we must have to change from this traditional ways of doing things manually. The world is going digital. “Electronic voting will to an extent, eliminate some of the ills we complain about”.
Some political pundits have welcomed the idea of giving the use of the card legal backing noting that it would minimize electoral fraud in the system while others are of the view that the country is not ripe for such.
According to Jafez Ikenna, a Political analyst, “the card reader will correct past irregularities that has marred the country’s elections”.
He said: “It is true that it was not entirely perfect in the 2015 elections but that is not to say we cannot improve on it. We shouldn’t just shut the door to the possibilities of the card reader because it will go a long way to deal with issues of multiple registrations, multiple voting and all the likes”.
On the other hand, Andrew Ogoina posited that for the card reader to be deployed in subsequent elections, there was need for INEC to ensure that some if not all the issues that were encountered with the card in the 2015 elections be rectified.
He said: I honestly don’t agree with the use of the card for now. We all saw what happened in the last election. Some people’s finger prints were not recognized and some other problems.
“While I commend the National Assembly for amending the electoral act, I think we should pause in the use of that card until INEC is able to correct or rectify whatever issues they had with it so that registered voters can perform their civic duties without problems”, Ogoina submitted.
Despite the heated debate on the use of the card reader, the lawmakers in unison, moved to provide solution to a section of the Act which.
Untangling the Kogi Saga
Following crisis that ensued after the All Progressives Congress’ candidate, Alh. Audu Abuabakar, died during the Kogi gubernatorial election, the House also altered the electoral Act to allow INEC suspend exercise for 21 days, in the event of death of a presidential or governorship candidate in the course of the election.
Sponsor of the Bill, Hon. Sunday Karimi in his debate, said part of the intendment of the bill is to among other things empower vice president and deputy governorship candidates to automatically assume the position the respective candidate in the event that the candidate dies prior to the completion of an election.
Karimi added that the proposed amendment will fill the lacuna and address contending issues adding that the amendment has become necessary because the Supreme Court failed to address the issue in Kogi governorship election.
To this effect, the amendment provides that a political party whose candidate dies will then be allowed to conduct a fresh primary to replace the deceased, thus bringing to an end any such controversy over who should continue on behalf of the party between a running mate and runners-up in the primary election that produced the deceased in the first place. In addition, the amendment provides that any new candidate from the fresh primary should inherit the votes already garnered by the deceased on behalf of the party.
While the Senate has passed its version of the amendment to the Act for third reading and awaits the House to conclude work on its version following which concurrence will take place and assent by the president, it is believed that the alteration of the existing electoral law will further bring the desired reforms in the nation’s electoral system which has long been overdue.