…as debate stall in House of Reps
The Senate on Thursday employed technicalities to reject a proposal for the electronic transmission of election results in the country.
The voting on the issue toed the party line, even overriding the position of the Southern Governors Forum, which at the of their meeting recently had asked for the retention of electronic transmission of election results in the country.
The upper chamber of the National Assembly said that the Independent National Electoral Commission must get clearance from the National Communications Commission (NCC), which must also be approved by the National Assembly, for election results to be transmitted electronically.
At the end of the session marked by heated arguments and flaring tempers, 52 Senators supported electronic transmission, subject to clearance from NCC and National Assembly, while opposed to clearance from INEC and the NCC, were only 28. Twenty-eight of the Senators were absent from the sitting.
The bill was therefore passed after it was read for the third time.
But it was not so in the House of Representatives, where members failed to agree on the means of election results transmission.
The House will therefore delay its recess by one day, as it is expected to reconvene Friday to find a common ground on the issue.
During the clause-by-clause reading of the Electoral Act No. 6, 2010 (Amendment) Bill, 2021, Deputy Senate Chief Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, proposed an amendment to the clause on the mode of transmission of election results.
According to him, which provided that: “The Commission may transmit results of elections by electronic means where and when practicable” should be amended to read: “The Commission may transmit results of elections by electronic means, provided that the network has been adjudged secured by the NCC and approved by the National Assembly.”
Abdullahi’s suggestion was supported by the Senate, after Senate President Ahmad Lawan put it to vote. This however did not go down well with some of the Senators, especially the opposition members.
A counter-proposal by Senator Bassey Albert that Section 52(3) of the Bill as contained in the Bill, which reads: “The Commission may transmit results of elections by electronic means where and when practicable” should be retained was however defeated when it was put to vote. This increased the uproar in the Red Chamber.
The uproar and rowdiness in the chamber intensified, following the rejection of the provision for electronic transmission of results in the Bill.
Reacting to the Senate’s decision on the bill, the opposition People’s Democratic Party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, criticized the outcome of the debate in the Senate.
Ologbondiyan said in the statement that:
“The PDP and indeed the majority of Nigerians are shocked over the decision of the APC-led Senate to undermine our electoral process by refusing to approve the demand by Nigerians across board for electronic transmission of election results without conditionalities.”
“On Thursday, the senators were divided along party lines with the PDP members supporting electronic transfer of election results, while their APC colleagues, including southern members, insisted that it should only be adopted when feasible.
“The Senate Committee on INEC had, in the report, recommended in Section 52(3) that “The commission (INEC) may transmit results of elections by electronic means where and when practicable.”
“But an APC senator from Niger North, Sabi Abdullahi, amended the clause to read, “INEC may consider electronic collation of results provided the national network coverage is adjudged to be adequate and secured by the Nigerian Communications Commission and approved by the National Assembly.”
