The Conference Committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate has amended the Electoral Act of 2010 to allow the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to conduct voting in the forthcoming elections in a procedure determined by the Commission.
By this development, the National Assembly may have accorded INEC the go ahead to use card readers for the march 28 and April 11 elections. Before this amendment, section 52 had prohibited the use of electronic voting machine by INEC, but with the amendment, the Commission is at liberty to determine whichever procedure to use for the elections.
Section 52 of the Electoral Act, captioned “Conduct of poll by open secret ballot, as amended” now states: “Voting at an election under this Act shall be in accordance with the procedure determined by the Independent National Electoral Commission.”
The legislature however tasked INEC with the responsibility of providing internally displaced persons, IDPs, with an opportunity to exercise their civic rights by participating in the elections. The foregoing formed part of the report of the Conference Committee of the House of Representatives and the Senate on amendments to the Electoral Act, 2010, to provide for tenure of office of secretary, power to issue duplicate voter cards, determine voting procedure and for other related matters, 2015.
Regarding the tenure of office, the lawmakers fixed a-four-year tenure for secretary and other staff of the commission, renewable for another period of four years only. The amended clause 2, section 8 (1) now has C inserted to state, “ hold office for a period of 4 years from the date of his appointment which may be renewable for another period of 4 years only.”
-DP
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