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Monday, December 17, 2012

Uwais, others seek review of electoral law

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Guardian News
Uwais, others seek review of electoral law
Dec 17th 2012, 00:00

uwais_FORMER Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mohammed Lawal Uwais, and the National Assembly Monday expressed the need to improve on the nation's current Electoral Law, stating that it was imperative for free and fair election and the deepening of democracy in the country.

Speaking at a dialogue on the review of the Electoral Law and Process, organised by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Center (PLAC), Uwais expressed regrets that recommendations of the report of the 22-member Electoral Reform Committee he chaired in 2007 were killed by political interests.

He lamented that rather than fully implement the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee, the Federal Government opted to "pick and choose." Uwais said: "As we know, the Bill that was produced by the National Assembly though reflects on some of the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee, but not virtually all of the recommendations of the committee.

"As far as the Electoral Reform Committee was concerned, the recommendations were intended to be in tandem with one another. If you want to make a good job of it, you cannot just pick and choose a few.

"Unfortunately, although I am not blaming the National Assembly, party interest came in. Well, the 2010 Electoral Act was produced; it was put in practice in the 2011 elections.

"You are in the field so you are in the position to point out the shortcomings of the Act, but I know from the legal point of view that some provisions, like the one that electoral petitions should be completed by the tribunals within 180 days, created some problems. But luckily, the Supreme Court was there to resolve whatever interpretation problems there was.

"I know among the lawyers, they are not happy with the solution provided by the Supreme Court. At the moment, we are aware that there is an exercise going on and we cannot amend the Electoral Act in certain respects without amending the constitution."

In his speech, Chairman of Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Andy Uba, said that, "drawing from the experiences of the 2011 elections, there have been suggestions that the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act as amended have not fully addressed the gaps and challenges to the administration of elections in Nigeria, and these laws require further review as part of preparations for the 2015 general elections."

 

 

 

According to Uba, "the Senate Committee on INEC is open to suggestions and new ideas on how the legal framework for election administration can be further improved. It is my understanding that this dialogue is geared towards generating new ideas and initiating the very important discussion on the review of electoral laws in Nigeria.

"The National Assembly intends to build on the success of amendments to the Electoral Act in 2010. We hope that your experiences with the implementation of the 2010 Electoral Act will help to achieve a settled Electoral Law in Nigeria."

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, represented on Monday by his Chief Technical Adviser, Mr. Okechukwu Ibeanu, disclosed that about 40 million electronic chip-base voters' cards were almost ready for use, stating: "Very soon, we will start this procedure of issuing the cards."

According to him, "in all, 73.504 million voters registered in 2011 may have this card before 2015; you can use a card reader that may not require taking prints from 10 fingers.

"We are already testing the system. Nevertheless, we are asking for amendment of Section 52 of the Electoral Act so that nobody goes to court to say that electronic accreditation is part of electronic voting."

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