ABUJA — The Senate has decided to allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to determine the best mode to transmit election results.
The upper chamber reconsidered its initial stance on the Electoral Act Amendment bill on Tuesday.
This is coming after months of bashings from the public over resolution on electronic transmission of election results.
In July, the Senate had passed the bill with provisions that allowed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to transmit election results electronically after getting the green light on network coverage from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and approval from the National Assembly.
However, the development as listed in the Order Paper of the Senate read, ” Relying on order 1(b) and 53( b) of Senate Standing Order accordingly resolves to rescind its decision on the affected Clauses of the Bill as passed and re-commit same to the Committee of the Whole for Consideration and passage.”
Now, the electoral commission will now have to decide how to transmit election results — either electronically or manually.
The senate also approved that all political parties must use the direct primary mode in picking candidates as well as four other clauses in the electoral act amendment bill.
The senate leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, noted that some fundamental issues in the bill must be addressed.
“After critical examination of the bill by the senate committee on INEC, some fundamental issues which require fresh legislative action on the following clauses 43, 52, 63 and 87 were observed,” he said.
“Desirous of the need to address the observations by the committee and make necessary amendments; and relying on order 1(b) and 53(b) of the senate standing order.
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