Since she was elected by the people of Anambra Central Senatorial District to articulate their interest at the Senate, Iyom Uche Ekwunife, never had cause to be put on the spot by her electors.
But in the penultimate week, these constituents of hers, had cause to vent their spleen by querying the ranking senator, when they concluded that she was derelict in her duty to the district.
When senators voted for the bill, the Anambra lawmaker was one of the 28 that absented themselves from plenary on that Thursday. This development angered ODU members residents in Abuja to the point that they drafted a query seeking an explanation for her absence from such an important sitting.
“The acrimony and violence in our electoral process have led to fatalities, too numerous to mention. Obosi, as a town, has experienced quite a number of fracases that culminated in death during the election result collation process, hence our feeling of disappointment that our voice did not count owing to your absence on that day of the vote,” the query stated.
“The deliberation on the electoral act, which was supposed to come up on Wednesday was moved to Thursday, and was expected to stretch to Monday, July 19, for voting, however during the plenary on Thursday after some of us had travelled, senators present extended plenary hours to vote on the electronic transmission to conclude it the same day, instead of continuing on Monday, which was why the Senate plenary lasted till 9 p.m.
“In as much as the number is a very significant decider in parliament, we should also take decisions having a future projection and nation development in mind,” she added.LONG before now, public-spirited individuals, civil society organisations, and sundry stakeholders had expressed deep concern over the recurring electoral fraud that threatened the country’s democracy since the return of that form of government in 1999.
Insisting that a lot has been done by INEC to facilitate the easy nomination of candidates for elective offices by political parties, in addition to the accreditation of observers and the media, he said: “Let me reassure Nigerians that the commission is committed to expediting the process leading to the deployment of electronic voting machines in elections in earnest.” the INEC head affirmed.
“Considering Nigeria yearns for an electoral system that is transparent, credible, free and fair and above all, meet the expectation of citizens, the law governing the electoral architecture must be spotless from electoral malfeasants, which currently characterise the system.”WHEN the opportunity came for the Electoral Act to be tinkered with, many reposed immense confidence in parliament to do the bidding of the electorate, by paving way for the adoption of the new system.
The introduction of the Zip and Z-file for capturing polling units Form EC8A was remarkable. The Z-file, a tablet with a camera was used after the poll had been concluded and ballot papers sorted. Once the result is entered into the sheet, the Z-file was used to take a picture of the result sheet , which was thereafter transmitted to the INEC portal for everyone to view the polling unit result live.
Like Abaribe, Senator Bassey Albert , who represents Akwa Ibom North East, also kicked against the proposal to water down the electronic transmission of election results, stressing that the initial one made by the committee should be retained. “I am convinced that if INEC was given the chance to appear before the National Assembly alongside NCC, the commission would have told the distinguished senators and honourable members that all the network providers in Nigeria have assured INEC that network coverage is 100 percent across the country.
Asked whether he thinks that lawmakers made the best use of the opportunity to deploy widespread technology in our electoral process to facilitate credible polls, Rafsanjani said: “Not really! It is no more news that there was a major division in the upper chamber over an amendment to clause 52 of the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Because INEC was not allowed to brief lawmakers after the NCC did on network coverage of the country, many still believe that majority of the lawmakers were, perhaps influenced by the position of the NCC to vote against electronic transmission. But Rafsanjani is full of regrets that only the NCC was given the chance to brief the legislators. “All well-meaning Nigerians would have expected INEC to be invited to, as well, brief lawmakers on the matter.
“I’m afraid I have to disagree that the legislators were influenced by the presentation of NCC. Instead, I will argue that the regulator hearkened to their calls. In the first instance, INEC has been transmitting results even at the pilot phase. They have used the result viewing platforms, which entails that results are uploaded onto the portal directly from polling units.
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