A bill amending the Electoral Act 2022 to ban electoral authorities from cancelling election results owing to over-voting has scaled a second reading in the House of Representatives.
Rep. Abubakar Fulata, the bill’s sponsor, asked for the punishment of erring election officers during a discussion on the bill’s basic concept on the House floor in Abuja.
He said:
“Equally important is the need to punish the presiding officer who allowed himself or herself to be used to perpetrate fraud and injustice.”
According to him, this measure proposes to alter Section 51 (2) and repeal Sections 51(3) and 51(4), as well as Section 84 (8).
“As it stands, the provisions of sections 51(2) (3) and (4) seem to deliberately target legitimate winners of elections instead of the criminally minded individuals who connive with custodians of electoral materials to cancel their votes.”
He said that as caretakers of election documents, the phrase was necessary for deterrence.
He stated that even if it was assumed that the person who added the votes was unknown, the winner of the election in a specific unit could not have participated in an intentional act that would invalidate their votes.
“Most of the time, candidates target their opponents’ strong holes, exploiting the provisions of this section to add one or two votes to invalidate the results of the elections in certain polling units.
He said that this was done to give the losers an edge.
Several lawmakers who spoke also supported the idea, saying it was time to penalise cops who helped nullify results.
When the Deputy Speaker, Rep Benjamin Kalu, who presided over plenary, put the Bill to a vote, it was overwhelmingly approved and passed for a second reading.
The bill was forwarded to the House Committee on Electoral Matters for further legislative action.
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cc: Vanguard Ng
