The Senate on Thursday at plenary rejected a proposal made in the amendment to the 2010 Electoral Act for Presidential debates among contestants before presidential election.
The Senate however passed some amendments to the Electoral Act.
The Upper Chamber’s rejection of presidential debates was contained in the report of the Senate Committees on the Review of the 1999 Constitution and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), entitled: “A Bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act, 2010 to provide for tenure of office of Secretary, power to issue duplicate voters card, determine voting procedure and for other related matters, 2014” which was presented by Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba, at plenary.
Senate was of the view that election debates should be put out of the purview of law and not make mandatory for party candidates before standing for an election.
Also, a proposal that sought to place the responsibility of proving the regularity or otherwise of any election on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was thrown out by the lawmakers.
The committee said its position was that the burden of proof on electoral irregularities during election should be on the petitioner.
The Committees further observed that the Bills offered diverse opinion on the issue of deepening democracy and democratic gains through electoral reforms.
However, it said there were glaring problems of practicability, repetitiveness of some provisions, contradiction of standard legal principles and constitutional provisions. Hence, some of the provisions of the aforementioned Bills 266, 297, 379 and 455 were rejected.
Meanwhile prominent among the new amendments to the Electoral Act, are provision of tenure for the Secretary of the Commission.
It also gave INEC sufficient time to process transfer of voters and issuance of duplicate voters’ card and also allowed the electoral umpire to determine the procedure for voting at an election – “thereby removing the prohibition of electronic voting.”
The amendment also increased the time for INEC to produce certified true copies of documents requested by any party in an election petition from one to two weeks.
It provided punishment for polling officers who conspire to make false declaration of results.
The first schedule was however deleted to prevent electoral officers from being respondents in election petitions, among others.