The House of Representatives on Friday passed the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, leaving unchanged Clause 52(2) as presented, the center of controversies surrounding the bill.
The clause allows the Independent National Electoral Commission to determine when, where and how voting and transmission of results will be done.
Clause 52(2) reads, “Voting at an election and transmission of results under this bill shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the commission.”
The session witnessed severe rowdiness as the Deputy Speaker, Ahmed Wase, skipped Section 52 where consideration of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill was suspended on Thursday.
This was after the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, had asked officials of the Nigerian Communications Commission a series of questions, and declared that the information from the agency would guide the lawmakers on Clause 52(2).
The House later went into the Committee of the Whole, which was presided over by Wase, to continue with the consideration.
Wase, however, called for a vote from Clause 54, which generated protests.
The Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, raised a point of order to recall that the session on Thursday was halted when the consideration got to Clause 52. He also recalled that several members called for a division of the House, which Wase overruled.
The Deputy Speaker, however, denied blocking the division of the House, adding that Clause 52 had already been voted on and passed.
ll that Wase had ruled that the nays had it even when the ayes were louder than the nays, a development that ended normalcy in the chamber.
there was tight security at the National Assembly especially around the House of Representatives chambers on Friday morning.
Passage of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill at the House was stalled on Thursday, a development that forced the lower chamber to extend deliberations on the bill to Friday, when it was supposed to begin its two-month holiday.
Gbajabiamila was forced to adjourn plenary till Friday for the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Mahmood Yakubu; and Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission, Prof Umar Danbatta, to brief the chamber on the implication of having election results transmitted electronically.
Several attempts by members to amended Clause 52(2) were overruled by Wase. As a result, the House spent about two hours on this one clause, which heightened the rowdiness of Friday’s session.
The Senate on Thursday passed the bill. It decided that the mode of transmission of election results will be determined by the INEC in collaboration with the NCC, but added that the decision of both agencies would be subject to the Senate’s approval.