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Efforts to provide the nation with a new electoral law moved closer to reality yesterday when the Electoral Act passed a second reading at the Senate.

It has subsequently been committed to the Senate’s standing committee on constitution review and the committee on INEC to conduct a public hearing on it.

The electoral bill is part of the ongoing attempts to reform the electoral system in the country. The bill was read for the first time in the Senate on April 20, 2010 and is composed of 161 clauses – with additions of the clauses expunged from the draft amended constitution.

“This bill, which seeks to repeal the 2006 Electoral Act and re-establish the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), regulates the conduct of federal, state, and area council elections, and deals with related matters, is broadly aimed at strengthening democracy and the electoral process in Nigeria,” Ike Ekweremadu, the deputy Senate president who led debate on the bill, said.

The new Electoral Act will contain some major parts that will define future political systems in Nigeria.

Firstly, in line with the amendment of the constitution, the bill provides for independent candidates. More so, it has absorbed the issue of political party formation and administration from the old constitution, “for ease of reassessment as the dynamics of time might require,” Mr. Ekweremadu said.”

Furthermore, with this bill, the procedure for election into local government councils, which hitherto forms part of the existing act, has been expunged, as the issue of local government elections need not be included in the federal legislations on election matters.”

No more free money

Highlights of the bill include the elimination of the annual grant clause in the existing Act, which currently compels the government to pay out grants to political parties annually. A similar clause in the constitution has also been expunged in the draft amended constitution.

“I don’t know how, in the first place, the idea came about to give grants to political parties,” the Senate President, David Mark, said. “Right now, it does not meet our political needs, and we have to expunge it.” Grace Bent (PDP, Adamawa State), argued that the removal of the grants will distinguish the real political parties from fake ones: “All the political parties should be denied grants so we will know who is real,” she said.

Uche Chukwumerije (PPA, Abia State), also supported the argument, saying it will scrap the current “kleptocracy” many pseudo political parties practice and institute real democracy.

The bill will also empower INEC to monitor both the administrative and financial activities of political parties, in order to ensure that few wealthy individuals, foreign agents, or interest groups do not control the operations of political parties.

The bill also provides serious penalties for offenders of the various rules in the Act, as well as provisions that will expedite the process of litigation by providing for time saving measures in the dispensation of electoral cases.