Kenneth Okonkwo, a member of the African Democratic Congress, ADC, has criticised the Senate over the amendment of the Electoral Act, accusing it of undermining Nigeria’s democracy.
In a statement titled, “Nigerians are duped by the Senate,”
which he shared on X on Tuesday, Okonkwo faulted the amendment to Section 60 of
the Electoral Act that permits the electronic transmission of election results
but allows manual collation where electronic transmission is deemed impossible.
He specifically criticised a proposal by Senator Mohammed
Monguno, which provides that manually generated Form EC8A may be used for
collation of results if electronic transmission cannot be carried out.
According to Okonkwo, the proviso weakens the intention of
electronic transmission by making it non-mandatory.
Okonkwo argued that the amendment effectively legitimizes
technical glitches during elections, noting that a similar justification was
given by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2023
presidential election when electronic transmission reportedly failed.
Okonkwo suggested that the Senate was deliberately weakening
electoral safeguards and urged Nigerians to resist what he described as an
attempt to undermine democracy.
Okonkwo wrote: “Senator Munguno has just proposed a worse
amendment to the controversial clause that rejected mandatory electronic
transmission of results.
“He proposed a proviso that manually generated form EC8A
should be used only for collation of results where electronic transmission is
impossible. This is going back to square one where it is not mandatory to
electronically transmit election results. Indeed, this is approving technical
glitches in our elections because this means that when INEC claims that it
cannot transmit as it did in 2023 presidential election, it has the power to
use the manual results for collation.
“What Nigerians want is that electronic transmission is
mandatory, and anytime it is impossible to transmit election results
electronically from the polling unit, the election should be void and
cancelled, and another election scheduled for another day.
“It is important to note that this is how the issue of the
BVAS was treated. The provision requires that where the BVAS is not working for
accreditation for any reason, the election is cancelled and rescheduled (see
Section 47 (2)(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022).
“It is obvious that Nigerians must insist on their demand
for mandatory electronic transmission of results without an option to use only
the unverified manual results for collation or the integrity of our elections
will be destroyed.
“This Senate is hell-bent on destroying our democracy and
Nigerians must resist this.”
The Senate had earlier on Tuesday
amended Section 60 of the Electoral Act during an emergency plenary session.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio explained that under the
amendment, presiding officers at polling units are required to electronically
transmit election results to INEC’s Results Viewing Portal (IREV) after Form
EC8A has been signed and stamped.
“The presiding officer shall electronically transmit the
results from each polling unit to the IREV portal after Form EC8A has been
signed and stamped by the presiding officer, and/or countersigned by the
candidates or polling agents where available at the polling units,” Akpabio
said.
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