Lawmaker suggests panacea to electoral violence

The only antidote to electoral violence and manipulation is effective legislation with punitive measures, Abdullahi Halims, representing Ankpa/Omala/Olamaboro Federal Constituency of Kogi State has said.

Speaking with The Guardian yesterday on the vexed issue of electoral reform he asserted that the only setback was the enforcement, which he said was not within the jurisdiction of the legislators.

“I want to state clearly here that electoral violence or not does not depend on the Electoral Act. There are set of laws to regulate processes and conduct of elections in Nigeria,” he said, heaping the blame on the attitude of Nigerians in election.

Some people are so aggressive and determined, that if it is not about them, it can’t be anyone else, he said.“It’s not about Electoral Act. Electoral Act has enough provisions to deal with the disobedience of laws.”

According to him, what happens during election differs from one polling unit to another, adding that though election could be violent, the electorate need to be protected also.

“What happens in my own polling unit may be different from what happens in another person’s polling unit.“The only business of security officers at the polling units is to protect election materials and the voters, adding that anything outside that was not within the arm of the law.”