By Haruna Salami
Stakeholders at a one day joint public hearing organised by the Senate Committee on INEC and House Committee on Electoral Matters have canvassed electronic voting, diaspora voting and punishment for electoral offenders through the establishment of electoral offences commission.
Senator Ike Ekweremadu, former Deputy President of Senate, in his contribution said as someone who has been involved in the process of electoral reform since 2007, he advocated stern punishment for electoral offences but preferred constitutional amendment for the Federal High Court to accommodate electoral offenses without creating another bureaucracy in form of a commission.
Ekweremadu suggested an amendment of section 252 of the Electoral Act to give INEC powers to use electronic voting and electronic transmission of results.
He also said political parties should conduct early primaries and be given a timeframe of 6 months to one year to do so before the election so that INEC will not be “overwhelmed by late primaries” which can lead to the dispute of who is the authentic candidate of a political party as it was the case in the recent Imo Senatorial by-election.
However, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC through shared Ekweremadu’s view on the to punish electoral offenders, disagreed with the former DSP on saddling Federal High Court with that responsibility, preferring a whole commission to deal with it.
The anti-graft agency, which has been involved in the electoral process of late is also in support of electronic voting, early voting before the actual Election Day, and diaspora voting.
“Electoral Act should guard against the use of illicit financial inflow during the election”, EFCC said.
Ahmed Muazu, INEC Acting Chairman who represented Prof. Mahmood Yakubu at the public hearing said INEC forwarded 91 amendments to National Assembly, only 41 have been affected, and was hopeful that the remainder would be accommodated in the current efforts.
Muazu commended the National Assembly for the 2010 amendment by making INEC funding to be on first line charge.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan who declared the one-day public hearing open assured all the participants that the National Assembly will pass the Electoral Act by the first quarter of 2021.
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