Amid the ongoing debate on the Electoral Act, Director of News and Politics Editor of Arise Television, Sumner Sambo, has said what the Senate achieved on Tuesday at its emergency plenary is only 50 percent of what the protesters and Nigerians asked for, describing the Senate’s position as a “half-measure.”
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However, Senator representing Ebonyi North Senatorial District, Onyekachi Nwaebonyi, has countered that the latest amendment to the Electoral Act by the National Assembly has effectively closed the loopholes that previously enabled electoral manipulation, declaring that “nobody can rig election in Nigeria” under the new arrangement.
Sambo made his remarks on Wednesday on Arise Television’s ‘Morning Show’, stressing the need for external vigilance on the issue of real-time electronic transmission of results.
“There’s a need for eternal vigilance on this issue because what was achieved was more like 50% of what the protesters have been asking and other Nigerians, I mean, not just the protesters. From what the Senate has passed, it’s more of like half measure,” Sambo said.
He questioned the intention of the senators as to what they want to achieve with the specific amendment.
“And then it actually calls to question the intention of senators as to what exactly they want with this specific amendment because you see that from what they have done, they’ve passed a whole lot of power to presiding officers.
“And I don’t think it’s the intention of the Constitution or even pass laws for presiding officers to be as powerful as to be taking discretionary positions when you should actually have laws in place,” he added.
Sambo explained that from what the Senate passed, presiding officers are being asked to decide whether to go with electronic transmission or to go with Form EC8A, which is manual collation, in the event of a network issue.
“So from what we have seen here, the presiding officers are being asked to decide to go with the electronic transmission or decide to go with the form EC8A, which is the manual collation in the event that there’s a network issue.
“And that’s why I want Nigerians to actually pay attention to the version passed by the House of Representatives,” he said.
Speaking on the same programme, Senator Nwaebonyi said the new legal framework makes electronic transmission of election results mandatory, stressing that the revised law now carries greater force than existing guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Leading with the Senate’s position on the amendment, the lawmaker said, “nobody can rig election in Nigeria” under the new arrangement.
According to the senator, the key distinction between the 2022 Electoral Act and the latest amendment lies in how electronic transmission of results is now provided for in the law itself.
“The difference between the Electoral Act of 2022 and what we are doing now, and which will make the decision of the court different from what happened in INEC versus Atiku, which is a very popular case, as far as this electronic transmission of votes is concerned, is that this time, the National Assembly have inserted it in our law,” the lawmaker said.
He explained that the language of the amendment makes the provision compulsory.
“And the word there is ‘shall’, not ‘may’. That is the difference,” he added.
Nwaebonyi further argued that the new Electoral Act would override any conflicting operational guidelines issued by INEC, including those relating to the use of the Result Viewing Portal (IREV).
“And moreover, the Electoral Act overrides the INEC guideline. If there is conflict between the guideline and the Act, the Act is an Act of the parliament. The guideline is a guideline of the agency. So the Electoral Act supersedes the guideline,” the senator said.
The Ebonyi lawmaker maintained that the amendment would fundamentally change the legal context in which future election disputes are determined, particularly in relation to electronic transmission of results.
“So with what we have done now, nobody can rig election in Nigeria,” he said.
He, however, noted that the success of the reform would depend on the vigilance of political actors and stakeholders.
“All that is required is for all eyes to be on the ball by all political players,” the senator added.
The Senate had on Tuesday reconvened in an emergency session following public outcry over earlier changes to the Electoral Act, especially provisions on the transmission of election results and the status of INEC’s IREV portal.
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