Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Monday said that the
National Assembly wants rearrangement of the order of election to help
voters to judge each candidate on his or her own merit at each level of
election.
Ekweremadu said that the rearrangement of the order of
election as passed by the House of Representatives, if adopted by the
Conference Committee of both Chambers, would no doubt help the
electorate to make up their minds on each candidate seeking their votes
at each level of election.
He also assured
that legislative work on the Electoral Act and the Constitution
amendment would be concluded in a matter of weeks.
Ekweremadu was
said to have stated this when he received a delegation of the British
High Commission in Nigeria led by the High Commissioner, Mr. Paul
Arkwright.
A statement by the Special Adviser (Media) to the
Deputy Senate President, Uche Anichukwu said that Ekweremadu expressed
gratitude to the British Government for always showing interest in state
of the Nigerian union and her democracy.
It said that Ekweremadu
noted that concluding the amendments to the Electoral Act and
Constitution amendment was top on the priority list of the 8th National
Assembly to ensure better governance and smooth elections in 2019.
The
Deputy Senate President was quoted to have said: “The 2019 election is
very important to Nigeria. The amendments to the Electoral Act and the
Constitution all form part of the ongoing electoral reform to continue
to improve on the quality of our elections.
“In the previous
amendment, a timeframe was set for the determination of election
petitions. Now we are working on setting a timeframe for pre-election
matters. In the previous amendments, we also created a window for direct
and indirect primary by political parties.
“In the current
amendment, we want to make more elaborate provisions regarding direct
party primaries for political parties that may wish to adopt it to
ensure greater fairness, transparency, and internal democracy in
choosing their flag bearers.
“We are also working to lift the
restrictions on the use of electronic voting by the Independent National
Electoral Commission, INEC. That way, it will be up to the election
management body to determine if it is sufficiently prepared to deploy
electronic voting or when to adopt electronic voting.”
He said,
“The bottom line is that the Conference Committees on both the Electoral
Act and Constitution Amendment are meeting separately this week to
conclude work on the entire amendments to ensure a smoother and more
credible electoral processes as well as promote good governance of the
country.”
It said that the British High Commissioner, Mr.
Arkwright, noted that they came to see Ekweremadu on political
developments, especially as it concerned the prospects for the People’s
Democratic Party and legislative activities of the National Assembly.
“The
legislative programme, which you have in the Senate and the National
Assembly, the changes to the electoral laws are also important to us,”
Arkwright was quoted to have said
