Senate passes electoral act, drops NEC clause

The Senate yesterday bowed to public pressure and dropped the controversial section of the 2010 Electoral Act amendment bill which sought to make ...

all federal lawmakers members of their parties’ executive council.

The Senate withdrew section 87 (11) which has caused a lot of uproar and charges that National assembly members plan to hijack the parties and make themselves the most powerful block in Nigerian politics.

The senators swiftly passed the remaining 47 clauses in the amendment after agreeing to reject the thorny section during a closed door meeting that lasted 90 minutes. Yesterday’s meeting was the last in a series of closed door meetings which the Senate has had on the matter.

The section was withdrawn by Deputy Minority Whip, Maina Maji Lawal who led the debate on the bill in the absence of Isiaka Adeleke, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“There has been a lot of heat in respect to this amendment,” the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presided at the plenary said. “The passage today I believe will finally settle the issue. We felt that the issue of the national executive council of political parties needs to be settled once and for all.”

Ekweremadu later told journalists that the Senate’s decision to throw out the amendment was in response to the desire of the public. He added that the Senate believes in allowing the political parties to handle all matters relating to their internal democracies without interference from it.

Although the House of Representatives has passed the amended electoral act which put members of the National Assembly in the highest ruling organ of parties, the deputy Senate President said, “The essence of having a bicameral parliament is such that if there are issues as fundamental as this, and then there are reactions from public as we have in this one, then we have need to have another look at it. So I think the wisdom has paid off.

“So what we have done this afternoon is to have another look at it and we felt if this is heating the system, we can say we drop it. We are hopeful that our respective parties or the remaining parties will find it in their wisdom to bring in members of the National Assembly to their respective NEC.”

Other notable amendments passed yesterday included shifting the powers to disqualify candidates for election from the purview of the Independent National Electoral Commission, to the court.