Lawan constitutes the conference committee for the 2021 Electoral Act Amendment

The President of the Senate Ahmad Lawan has named the Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya as the Leader of the seven-member conference committee to meet with the House of Representatives team to iron out the contentious aspects of the Electoral Act (amendment) Bill.

Other members of the Senate committee are, Kabiru Gaya (North-West), Ajibola Basiru (South-West), Danjuma Goje (North-East), Uche Ekwunife (South-East), Sani Musa (North-Central), and Mathew Urhoghide (South-South).

A close observation of the seven-member committee members revealed that only one of them (Urhoghide) voted in support of the electronic transmission of results when there was a division on the issue.

Ekwunife was not available to cast her vote while the remaining four voted against the electronic transmission of results until the Independent National Electoral Commission got approval from the Nigerian Communication Commission and the National Assembly.

Recall that the Senate had on July 15, passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill after it considered and adopted the recommendations of the report of the Joint Committee on INEC.

The Senate had amended clause 52 (3) of the bill, empowering the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) to determine the suitability of network for electronic voting procedures, with approval of the National Assembly.

The clause had provided for INEC to determine electronic voting process where practicable but was amended to empower NCC to determine the suitability of the network to conduct the processes, subject to the approval of the National Assembly. (NAN)