A joint public hearing on an amendment to the Electoral Act 2025 by the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Electoral Matters is expected to be held today.

The Nation gathered from a source in the National Assembly’s Clerk’s office at the weekend that the hearing will be held in the Senate wing.

The source who admitted that the Senate and the House have different versions of the bill.

Some of the proposals in the bill are early voting by inmates, replacement of legislators who resigned or died before the expiration of their tenure and conduct of elections in a single day.

The bill also seeks a reduction in the length of electoral litigations from 180 days to 150 days, while restricting applications for review of election results to INEC staff alone. It also wants to stop the processes of replacing elected officials with those they defeated at the party primary after inauguration.

Besides, the bill recommends the disqualification of parties that field unqualified candidates or present false documents to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from contesting the affected election. It recommends a N10 million fine on any party that fields an unqualified candidate.

It also proposes the disqualification of a candidate and an imposition of a fine of N5 million on him/ her for false documents.

A scrutiny of the two versions of the bill showed that while the House version has provisions for early voting for a certain category of Nigerians and a new method of replacing elected lawmakers who either died or resigned, or became incapacitated, that in the Senate version does not.

While that of the House also proposes that parties which sponsored a lawmaker who died or resigned should produce his/her replacement, the bill in the Senate is silent on it.

The proposed law in both chambers is silent on the use of Permanent Voter Cards for accreditation during elections. But it states that “a person intending to vote in an election shall present himself to a Presiding Officer for accreditation at the polling unit in the constituency in which his name is registered, and shall provide any of “(a) an electronically generated voter identification, including a downloadable voter’ card with a unique QR code; or (b) any other form of identification as may be prescribed in section 10.”

The bill in both chambers makes it mandatory for funds meant for the conduct of the general election to be released to INEC in full not later than one year before the election as against the old practice of releasing them in tranches.

Also, the proposed amendment seeks to restrict election expenses by individuals and parties.

A presidential candidate is not expected to spend more than N10 billion (increased from N5 billion) and a governorship candidate N3 billion (an increase from N1 billion in the 2022 electoral Act.)

Those seeking election into the Senate, House of Representatives, state Houses of Assembly, chairmanship and councillorship elections are restricted to election expenses of N500 million, N250 million, N30 million(chairmanship inclusive) and N10 million, respectively.

It also states that “no individual or other entity shall donate to a candidate more than N500 million” for the election.

The new bill also seeks to amend provisions of the 2022 Electoral Act to provide for the disqualification by the court of a candidate who provides false information in the process of filing his nomination paper, as well as his political party that failed to do due diligence on the candidate.

Besides, the bill provides that where a candidate who contested a party primary has reasonable grounds to believe that the information given by his political party or documents submitted are false, he should be free to file a suit at the Federal High Court.

It also recommends that a candidate who does not meet the qualification stipulated in the law and presents himself to his political party shall be liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N5 million and his party, N10 million.

The bill is however, silent on the electronic transmission of election results.

To reduce the proliferation of political parties, the bill imposes an administrative fee of N50 million on associations intending to be registered as political parties.

The 2022 Electoral Act did not impose specific amount on associations, but said that “an application letter for registration as a political party shall not be processed unless there is evidence of payment of administrative fee as may be fixed by the commission”.

The proposed law also provides that “a political appointee at any level shall not be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of his party for the nomination of candidates for any election.”

On pre-election matters, the proposed law said “a court in every pre-election matter shall deliver its judgment in writing within 90 days from the date of filing the suit.

It also suggests that: “An appeal from a decision in a pre-election matter shall be filed within 14 days from the date of delivery of the judgment appealed against.

An appeal from a decision of a court in a pre-election matter shall be heard and disposed of within 60 days from the date of filing of the appeal.”

It also recommends that ‘’an election tribunal or court shall not declare any person a winner of an election in which such a person has not fully participated in all stages of the election”.

While also listing ground on which an election can be questioned, the bill states that “an election may be questioned on any of the following grounds — (a) the election was invalid by reason of corrupt practices or noncompliance with the provisions of this Act; or (b) the respondent was not duly elected by majority of lawful votes cast at the election.”

It, however, said that “an act or omission which may be contrary to an instruction or directive of the commission(INEC) or of an officer appointed for the election but which is not contrary to the provisions of this bill shall not of itself be a ground for questioning the election.”

The check frivolous election suits, bill states that “where the court determines that an election is being questioned by a political party or candidate on the grounds outside of those provided for under subsection (1), the court shall impose penalties of not less than N5,000,000 on the counsel and not less than N10,000,000 on the petitioner.”

Kalu: governors, states Assembly’s support crucial to constitution review

Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has said the National Assembly needs the support of governors and state assemblies to carry out a successful review of the 1999 Constitution.

He made this known when he led members of the House Committee on Constitution Review on a visit to Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah,

Kalu said: “If the governors are not in support, we will be running in circles. But with progressively minded governors like you, I am sure you will speak to your colleagues to keep backing us up, for them to know that we need them and for them to partner with us.

“The Conference of Speakers has shown interest, and the chairman participated in one way or the other. He has been giving us support, but we should not end our relationship only in engaging with them. We need you who are the major stakeholders help us push this through.

“Please, help us thank your brother governors for supporting the initiative of the Constitution review. The Governors Forum has, in one way or another, shown us support.

“Also, please, let them know that without them, we cannot make this Constitution. It is not possible because the Houses of Assembly will need to go through this document. We will not coerce the Houses of Assembly. But we know you can liaise with them to help get this document back to us as quickly as possible.’’

Governor Mbah commended the committee, saying, “You have come out to demonstrate such commitment in this process, and I think for the first time, we are now taking it.” (The Nation)