‘Outlawing manual accreditation on failure of C’Reader may frustrate 2019 elections’
Political analysts and election experts have picked holes on the latest amendment introduced in the ongoing consideration of Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018 at the House of Representatives.
If passed as it is, it means that in any polling unit where Card Reader failed to work perfectly well, instead of usual manual accreditation, the election will be suspended till the next 24 hours for repeat using the repaired Card Reader.
Under the new provision, which is a new Section 18 (3), where the card reader fails in any unit, “the election in that unit shall be suspended and conducted within 24 hours.”
The provision indicates that manual accreditation shall no longer serve as an alternative to accreditation with the card reader.
Coming with a very long title; Viz, “A bill for an Act to amend the provisions of the Electoral Act, No. 6, 2010 to further improve the electoral process and for related matters,” analysts said it the Bill becomes law, massive failure of Card Reader may undermine expected success of the elections and may drag election into avoidable crisis.
Business Hilights gathered further that under the Principal Act, the court is empowered to disqualify both the candidate and the political party where a dispute arises that the candidate supplied false information in the affidavit submitted to INEC.
Otherwise, the lawmakers said only the candidate should be disqualified in such circumstances and not with the political party.
A member from Rivers State, Mrs. Betty Apiafi, moved the amendment as lawmakers considered the report, saying “The political party did not ask the candidate to supply false information. The party can only work with the information supplied by the candidate, believing it to be true.
“But, where it is discovered to be false, it is the candidate that will be disqualified from the election, not the political party,” she stated.
The session, which was presided over by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Mr. Yussuff Lasun, considered 41 clauses in all.
