Electoral Act: Senators reaffirm passage of clause on e-transmission of results

Some senators have reaffirmed the passage of clause 60(3) of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill on real-time electronic transmission of election results by the senate at plenary on Wednesday.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 13 senators, led by Sen. Enyinnaya Abaribe, made the clarification at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday.

Abaribe said that the clarification had become necessary, following media reports that the senate had rejected passage of the clause on real-time electronic transmission of results.

“What we passed, and which the Senate President himself, when he was making clarification, confirmed that what we passed was transmission of electronic results.

“And I need to make this very clear: every one of us who is a senator (and) who has the privilege to represent a senatorial district came here under the trust of their senatorial zones, and each one of them holds a public trust.

“This trust has been handed to us by Nigerians to do the absolute best for Nigeria. And when it now appears that we have been misunderstood, that’s why we said we should come here,” he said.

The senator explained that there was a joint committee of members of the electoral committees in both chambers which worked on the electoral act amendment bill proposal.

“The joint committees had several retreats; everyone agreed at the end of the retreat that electronic transmission of results was the way to go.

“And that was reflected in the reports, both in the House and in Senate reports, and I think the Senate president reiterated it yesterday.

“It was the report of that senate ad hoc committee that we considered when we went into a closed session so that we could tidy up the report.

“And when we now came back to plenary to pass it, we passed it without any rancour.

“I can assure you, on the honour of all of us who are standing here, that in both the electoral committee of the senate and the ad hoc committee of the senate, and also in the executive session that we had, we all agreed on section 63(3), which is electronic transmission of votes.

“And electronic transmission of results was what we passed at plenary yesterday (Wednesday),” he said.

Abaribe also reiterated that a committee had been set up to harmonise the passed version of the senate and that of the house of representatives.

“Harmonisation is what you use to make sure that you produce one single document which the president will now sign. So that is where we are at the moment,” he said.

The senator said that after the adjournment of the plenary session on Wednesday, the senate did not reconvene to approve the votes and proceedings of the plenary.

“One other thing, so that Nigerians can rest assured, is that after our plenary session yesterday (Wednesday), we adjourned but did not come back to pass the votes and proceedings,” he said.

This, he said, was because the document that would be taken to the harmonisation committee would be the one passed by the senate and ratified by the votes and proceedings, adding, “There’s still one more step left for the senate to take.

“What now happens in harmonisation is simple: you either adopt the house’s version or you adopt the senate’s version, and of course Nigerians know what they want.”

According to him, it is the duty of Nigerians also to put pressure on and ask questions of their representatives on what was passed.

Abaribe emphasised that the majority of the senators across party lines were in support of the passage of real-time electronic transmission of results, “because this is not a party matter; this is a Nigerian matter.” (NAN)

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