House of Rep : Electoral Act bill amendment in discussion

The House of Representatives has on
Wednesday allowed a Bill to amend the
Electoral Act
to cover the lacuna
associated with the death of a candidate
in an election before the conclusion of
polling passed the second reading.
This is even as the House also allowed a
Bill for the amendment of Electoral Act
2010 passed second reading.
The Electoral Act 2010 Bill is to
empower election tribunals and courts to
declare candidates who scored second
highest votes as winners of elections if
the real winner is unqualified.
The bill provides that for the second
highest votes scorer to be declared
winner, the winner would have been
unqualified for the election from the
beginning.
Leader of the House, Mr Femi
Gbajabiamila, who moved the motion,
said that the bill when amended, would
go a long way to address contentious
issues in the Electoral Act.
He said that it would also allow for
deputies to automatically fill the vacant
office without conflicting issues from the
Supreme Court.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
reports that the lower chamber also
passed for second reading a bill for an
Act to ensure that all political parties
were gender sensitive.
Similarly, a bill to include the use of Card
Reader as part of the Electoral Act
scaled through second reading, with Rep.
Edward Pwajok (Plateau-PDP) and Rep.
Sunday Karimi (Kogi-PDP), speaking in
favour of motion on it.
Before its adoption, Minority Leader of
the House, Leo Ogor, opposed it, saying
that card reader should be excluded from
the Electoral Act.
He argued that the use of the device led
to the disenfranchisement of many
voters in the 2015 elections.
All the bills were referred to the relevant
committee for further legislative action.