If signed into law, any political party, leading but whose candidate in an election dies before the declaration of result of the exercise, must henceforth conduct a fresh primary within seven days of the death the candidate to pick another candidate.
The party must also within the same period submit the new name the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to replace the dead candidate.
Also, INEC would no longer be able to declare the result of an election in which a candidate dies before the conclusion of the exercise but suspend the election for a period not exceeding 21 days.
This followed the adoption of a report of a bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act, 2010 at the Committee of the Whole Tuesday.
The lawmaker must have taken cognizance of the death of Prince Audu, a candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the November 21, 2015, Kogi State governorship election before the result was declared by the Electoral Officer.
Audu died on November 22, 2015 shortly after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared the elections inconclusive.
At the consideration and adoption of the report, the lawmakers also adopted three new clauses to subsection 1 of Section 18 of the Principal Act.
The new addition is seeking, on conviction that any Electoral officer that issues a Permanent Voter Card (PVC) to any voter on polling day or less than 30 days before polling be liable to five years imprisonment or a fine of N5m or both.
At the Committee of the Whole chaired by Speaker Yakubu Dogara, the Chairman of House Committee on Rules and Business, Edward Pwajok (PDP, Plateau), while giving a synopsis of the bill said the amendment became necessary following the decline of President Muhammadu Buhari to sign it into law in December 2018 after which it was returned to the National Assembly.
Other amendments include Section 18. Section 18(1) of the Principal Act is amended by (a) Substituting for the figure, “30″, in line I, the figure“60″ as well as (b) inserting after subsection (i), new subsections “(2)”, “(3)” and “(4)”.
The new subsection (2) proposes that “If the Electoral Officer or any other officer is satisfied as to the circumstances of the loss, destruction, defacement or damage of the Voters’card, he shall issue to the voter a replacement Permanent Voter Card.
New subsection(3) states that “No person shall issue a replacement of a permanent voters card to any Voter on polling day or less than thirty (30) days before polling day.
The new subsection (4) has it that “Any person who contravenes subsection (3) of this section commits an offence and is liable on conviction to 5 years imprisonment or a fine of N5, 000,000.00 or both”.
Section 36(1) of the Principal Act was also amended by (3) inserting after the word “days”, a “proviso”
“Provided that the political party whose candidate died may, if it intends to continue to participate in the election, conduct a fresh primary election within 7 days of the death of its candidate and submit a new candidate to the Commission to replace the dead candidate”.
(b) inserting after subsection (2), a new subsection “(3)”which states that “If after the commencement of poll and before declaration of a winner, a leading candidate whose votes affect the results of the election dies:
(3) the Commission shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, suspend the election for a period not exceeding 21 days.
(b) the political party whose candidate died may, if it intends to continue to participate in the election, conduct a fresh primary within 7 days of the death of its candidate and submit a new candidate to the Commission to replace the dead candidate.
(c) subject to paragraphs (a) and (b), the Commission shall continue with the election, announce the final result and declare a winner.”
Amendment was also carried out on Section 85 (1) of the Principal Act by inserting before the word, “electing”, in line 2, the words, “merger and fusion and”to read as follows:
“A registered Political Party shall give the Commission at least 21 days’ notice of any Convention, Congress, Conference or meeting convened for the purpose of merger and fusion and electing members of its Executive Committees, other governing bodies or nominating candidates for any of the elective offices specified under this Act”.
The amendment to Section 156 was that “Ward Collation Officer’ means Officer responsible for collation of results at Ward Level.
It would be recalled that President Buhari, on his reasons for declining assent to the bill noted a new Electoral law would disrupt the process that has gone too far in the prosecution of the 2019 general elections.
In addition, he noted that some legislative amendments the bill requires, pointing out that Section 5 of the Bill, amending section 18 of the Principal Act should indicate the subsection to which the substitution of figure “30” for figure “60” is to be effected.
He also raised concern over Section 11 of the Bill, amending Section 36 should indicate the subsection in which proviso (provision) is to be introduced.
Also, Section 24 of the Bill which amends Section 85 (1) should be drafted in full as the introduction of “electing” to the sentence may be interpreted to mean that political parties may give 21 days’ notice of the intention to merge as opposed to the 90 days provided in Section 84 (2) of the Electoral Act which provides the provision for merger of political parties.
Furthermore, he also noted that the definition of the term “Ward Collection Officer” should be revised to reflect a more descriptive definition than the capitalized and undefined term “Registration Area Collation Officer”.
The December 2018 decline makes it the third time assent was withheld to the Electoral bill by the President.
