The Bill to ensure
electronic voting and direct transmission of results from polling units to a
central database has passed its second reading on the floor of the Nigerian
senate.
The Bill titled ‘A
Bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act, 2020’ was sponsored by Deputy
Senate President and senator representing Delta Central, Senator Omo-Agege.
The Bill is aimed at
ensuring Nigeria’s elections are free, fair and credible.
According to senator
Omo-Agege, “To achieve this, our electoral laws must be sound and up to date in
order to respond adequately to new challenges that come with changing times and
human behaviours.
“This is a
response in part to a plethora of Supreme Court decisions directly or indirectly
calling upon the National Assembly to act pointing out that the apex Court has
persistently done this regarding INECs introduction of modern technologies into
the electoral process, especially accreditation of voters” he said.
If passed, INEC will be
compelled to operate an electronic database into which all results in an
election should be transmitted. The data of accredited voters will also be
transmitted to the central database upon the conclusion of the accreditation of
voters which would be done through the use of the card reader.
Following the
conclusion of debates on the general principle of the bill, it has been
referred to the senate committee on the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC) with a directive to report back within four weeks.
