A bill seeking the conduct of the presidential, governorship, National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly elections on the same day passed the second reading at the House of Representatives on Wednesday.
Sponsored by the lawmaker representing Ughelli North/Ughelli South/Udu Federal Constituency, Delta State, Mr Francis Waive, the bill seeks amendments to various sections of the Electoral Act 2022.
A copy of the bill obtained by journalists showed that it proposes in its Section 28 (1c) that “Election into the offices of the President, National Assembly, state governors and state House of Assembly shall be conducted on the same day”.
It also proposed for Section 10 (3) to read, “Every 10 years, the Independent National Electoral Commission shall carry out a re-registration exercise of all eligible voters in preparation for the next general elections”.
In Section 47 (3), it proposes that “where the process of accreditation fails, such a voter is automatically disqualified from voting. That is to say, no accreditation, no voting”.
This provision did not sit well with the lawmaker representing Dala Federal Constituency of Kano State, Ali Madaki, who argued that a genuine voter should not be disenfranchised for failing the accreditation test due to no fault of his.
He said, “We should not punish a voter because he or she was not accredited during an election. A voter who comes out to vote and whose name is in the register should be allowed to vote. It is not his fault that the accreditation fails. We know how the Independent National Electoral Commission behaves sometimes”.
