Senate Opposes Electronic Voting, Elections

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• Nigeria’s lawmakers in the Senate reject the proposal to empower INEC to adopt electronic voting 2015.
• The proposal did not go down well with the Senators, as majority of them rejected this amendment.
• The electoral body had said it would use the electronic voting system in the 2015 elections and had started a test-run on the process by producing the permanent voters’ card for voters in Osun and Ekiti States to.

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Nigeria’s lawmakers in the Senate have rejected a proposal to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adopt electronic voting for the 2015 General Elections and a proposal to hold the elections in one day.

During a debate on Tuesday to amend the Electoral Act, the Senators kicked against the plan to hold General Elections in one day, describing it as a move that will throw Nigeria into confusion and compound the electoral process.

During the plenary, three Bills that had to do with the amendment of the Electoral Act were presented on the floor of the Senate.

With less than one year to the 2015 General Elections, the lawmakers are in a race against time to get these Bills which may improve the electoral process passed.

Senator Abu Ibrahim sponsored one of the bills, which seeks to amend the Electoral Act to provide for elections to hold on the same day.

The proposal did not go down well with the Senators, as majority of them rejected this amendment.

Another bill which was sponsored by the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, seeks to amend the Electoral Act to provide for the tenure of the office of the Secretary of INEC, and determine voting procedure.

“The Bills, if passed, will grant INEC the latitude to use electronic voting system when it has the capacity to do so,” the Deputy Senate President said.

The Bills passed second reading and have been sent to the constitutional review committee for further legislative work.

The General Elections timetable release by INEC in January slated the Presidential and the National Assembly elections for February 14, 2015.

But it seems that the Senate is not satisfied with the schedule.

The electoral body had said it would use the electronic voting system in the 2015 elections and had started a test-run on the process by producing the permanent voters’ card for voters in Osun and Ekiti States to .