Senate passes new Electoral Act Amendment Bill

The Senate on Tuesday passed a new and fourth version of the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill, 2018.

President Muhammadu Buhari had declined assent to the bill three times, citing some constitutional and drafting issues.

During the just-ended annual recess of the National Assembly, its Joint Committee on INEC met to work on the document based on the issues raised by the president.

Tuesday’s passage of the bill followed the adoption of the report of the committee presented by its Chairman, Sen. Suleiman Nazif.

Nazif had said that the committee addressed all the issues raised by the president in withdrawing assent to the bill.

Speaking on the development, the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said he hoped the president would now assent to the proposed law.

“Let me congratulate all of us, particularly the Committee on Electoral Matters for the hard work they put in.

“We were able to achieve this that looked almost impossible at a time, and I want to commend everybody for making this happen.

“This will go a long way in improving our electoral process and further strengthen our governance.

“I am sure with this now, Mr President will of course give his assent, and we can now finally have an Electoral Act that we would all be proud of,” Saraki said.

The amendment seeks to provide the use of Card Readers and any other similar technological devices for the election, among others, according to Nazif.