• Chamber refers INEC amendment bill back to panel
• Approves new PIB for legislative processing
Moves by the Senate to prevent crisis in the event of a candidate’s death before conclusion of election failed, yesterday.
After an exhaustive debate, Senate President Bukola Saraki referred the INEC amendment bill back to the handling committee for consultation and appropriate legislative action.
The amendment was meant to avert repeat of the stalemate that followed the death of Abubakar Audu, All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, during the November 2015 election in Kogi State.
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The existing Electoral Act 2010 stipulates: “Where a nominated candidate dies in the circumstances stated under sub-section (1) of this section, the next person, from the same political party where the deceased emerged with the highest number of legal votes in the primary election shall be submitted to the Commission to replace the deceased, and the Commission shall accept such replacement as if the deceased is alive.”
The committee, however, reviewed this provision and recommended: “If after the commencement of poll and before the announcement of the final result and declaration of a winner, a nominated candidate dies, the Chief National Electoral Commissioner shall, being satisfied of the fact of the death, proceed with the election after allowing the political party whose candidate died to substitute the late candidate with the person who scored the next highest number of lawful votes in the primaries, which was won by the deceased candidate, as if the substituted person was the candidate originally nominated by that party.”
But senators became sharply divided on the matter, making passage of the bill impracticable.
The Senate, meanwhile, approved a segment of the contentious Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) for further legislative processing.
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was split into five segments because of controversies that in the past had stalled its passage.
The segment approved by the Senate, yesterday, was sponsored by the chairman of the Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), Tayo Alasoadura. It had no provision for oil-producing communities. This generated heated argument on the floor until Saraki, intervened and calm frayed nerves.
