The Senate on Thursday concluded the amendment of the Electoral Act by giving legal teeth to the usage of smart card readers during elections.
The Senate gave the go ahead to the Independent National Electoral Commission to use the smart card or any other method of voting its may deem fit for future elections.
It agreed in the Electoral Act: The Commission shall adopt electronic voting in all elections or any other method of voting as may be determined by the Commission from time to time.”
The Upper Chamber also blocked political appointees from participating in party’s primaries.
In addition, the lawmakers agreed that in case of withdrawal or death of the candidate before the election, the party should conduct fresh primary.
According to the report, which was presented by Senator Abba Kyari, a political appointee at any level of government shall not be a delegate at primaries, convention or congress of a political party convened for the purpose of nominating candidates for any election under the indirect primaries system except where such a political appointee is also statutory or adhoc delegate under subject of this discussion.
The report reads in part: “Section (3) if the after the commencement of the poll before the announcement of the final result and declaration of a winner, a nominated candidates dies,
“(a) the commission shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, suspend the election days for a period of 21 days
“(b) the political party whose candidates died may, if it intends to continue to participate in the election, conduct a fresh direct primary within 14 days of the death of its candidate and submit a new candidate to the commission to replace the dead candidate and
“(C) subject to paragraph (a) and (b) of this subsection, the commission shall continue with the election, announce the final result and declare the winner.”
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