The Senate, on Tuesday, amended the Electoral Act 2022, to
allow ‘statutory delegates’, all those elected to participate and vote in the
conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.
This followed the expeditious consideration of a bill during
plenary, which scaled first, second and third readings, respectively, and was
passed by the chamber after consideration by the Committee of the Whole.
Those identified as ‘statutory delegates’ include the
President, Vice President, Members of the National Assembly, Governors and
their deputies, Members of the State Houses of Assembly, Chairmen of Councils,
Councillors, and National Working Committee of political parties, amongst
others.
The bill to amend the 2022 Electoral Act No. 13 was
sponsored by the Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo-Agege (Delta Central).
Omo-Agege, in his presentation, said the bill seeks to amend
the provision of section 84(8) of the Electoral Act.
According to him, the provisions of the section “does not
provide for the participation of what is generally known as ‘statutory
delegates’ in the conventions, congresses or meetings of political parties.”
“The extant section only clearly provides for the
participation of elected delegates in the conventions, congresses or meetings
of political parties held to nominate candidates of political parties.
“This is an unintended error, and we can only correct it
with this amendment now before us”, the Deputy Senate President said.
Speaking after the bill to amend the 2022 Electoral Act was
passed, the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, in his remarks, said that the
amendment became imperative in view of the deficiency created by the provision
of Section 84(8) of the extant Act.
He said, “The amended Electoral Act of 2022 that we passed
this year, has a deficiency that was never intended and that deficiency will
deny all statutory delegates in all political parties from participation in
congresses and conventions.
“And, therefore, such a major and unintended clause has to
be amended before the party primaries start in the next eight days. This is
emergency legislation, so to speak.
“Our expectation is that the National Assembly – the two
chambers – would finish with the processing of the amendment of this bill
between today (in the Senate) and tomorrow (in the House of Representatives),
and then the Executive will do the assent.
“That is so important to enable every statutory delegate to
participate in the party primaries right from the beginning that will start on
the 18th of May, 2022.
“So, this is an emergency effort to ensure that nobody is
denied his or her rightful opportunity as a delegate, especially the statutory
delegates, and these are those who are elected.
“These are the President, Vice President, Members of the
National Assembly, Governors, Members of the State Houses of Assembly, Chairmen
of Council and their Councillors, National Working Committee Members of all the
political parties and so on.
“This is a fundamental effort to ensure that we address this
within the week, so that by next week, the Electoral Act, 2022 (amended
version), will be very salutary for us to start our party primaries.”
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