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President Muhammadu Buhari must have disappointed many Nigerians to have signed the new Electoral Law because of his ‘go slow’ approach to sensitive matters of this nature.
But to probably prove bookmakers wrong Buhari threw political sentiments aside and held the bull by the horns by finally endorsing the law.
Good a thing that his legal advisers quickly pointed out Clause 84 that was blindly passed by the National Assembly despite the array of lawyers in both legislative Chambers. It would have been the most difficult piece of legislation to enforce in Nigeria or better still a mockery of NASS.
In this news analysis, TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) will take a deep look at the new Electoral Law to know how enforceable are the amended clauses.
Some of these electoral laws in the past had turned the Nigerian Supreme Court into emergency Electoral umpire passing judgments that are highly questionable producing supreme court governors.
*Clause 29(1) stipulates that parties must conduct primaries and submit their list of candidates at least 180 days before the general elections. Here the only remarkable difference is the fact that 30 extra days were added from the original 150 days.
This will create ample time for political parties to fully adhere to electoral guidelines before elections are held.
* Clause 65 states that INEC can review results declared under duress. To review is one but diligently follow up during litigations is another kettle of fish. This is laudable if the Electoral umpire could prove that actually Electoral Officers were actually under duress in a law court.
*Clause 3(3) states that funds for general elections must be released at least one year before the election.
This is a welcome development instead of INEC going to influence NASS members for budgetary allocations few months to a general election. A peep of such expenditure is further captured in Section 3 stipulating that: The Electoral Act provides under Section 3 for the establishment of the Independent Commission Fund for the Electoral Commission. The Fund requires that the following be paid into it;
- Such sums and payments available to the Commission for carrying out its functions and purposes under the Electoral Act and the Constitution and all other assets from time to time that will accrue to the Commission;
- Sums that may from time to time be credited to the Commission;
- Aids and grants that may accrue to the Commission from time to time to perform its functions.
*Clause 51 says that the total number of accredited voters will become a factor in determining over-voting at election tribunals. How enforceable is this considering the fact that in some glaring circumstances Electoral Officers get induced to doctor election results. Appears good on the surface but how enforceable? This too may create room for the courts to feast on.
* Clause 54(2) makes provisions for people with disabilities and special needs. What are the provisions in the Constitution. There isn’t much difference because disabled persons were well captured. Read Rule 14 below:
Visually impaired/blind or incapacitated Voters- Rule 14 of the Regulations and Guidelines also provides for visually impaired/blind or incapacitated Voters, that the Presiding Officer at the Polling Unit will allow a person who is blind, visually impaired, or unable to distinguish symbols or who suffers from any physical disability to be accompanied into the Polling Unit/Voting Point and will be assisted to vote by a person chosen by him/her, other than an election official, polling agent or security personnel.
* Clause 47 gives legislative backing for smart card readers and any other voter accreditation technology that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) deploy. Beautiful development here but still subject to the whims and caprices of the courts.
*Clause 34 gives political parties power to conduct a primary election to replace a candidate who died during an election. Who supervises this? INEC or party officials? More troubles for political parties without internal democracy.
*Clause 50 gives INEC the legal backing for electronic transmission of election results. Again, the issue of no server or the server has been hacked or better still non-existent as it was exemplified in 2919 is still very strong but with a legal backing this could be a step in the right direction.
*Clause 94 allows for early commencement of the campaign season. By this provision, the campaign season will now start 150 days to the election day and end 24 hours before the election. This is just a matter of semantics because there’s nothing new here.
*Clause 84 stipulates that anyone holding a political office – ministers, commissioners, special advisers and others – must relinquish the position before they can be eligible to participate in the electoral process either as a candidate or as a delegate.
If this clause had been allowed to go unnoticed, it would have been a mockery of NASS that despite the array of lawyers within its confines this unenforceable piece of legislation scaled through without proper scrutiny.
The president who demanded it should be deleted from the Act immediately exposed the National Assembly’s gross negligence.
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