Passed Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill: N5b Limit For Presidential Bid Spending

SENATORS have re-jigged and passed the Electoral Amendment Bill
rejected thrice by President Muhammadu Buhari.

The bill was passed yesterday after a brief debate on the report
of the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral
Commission (INEC), which was submitted by Committee Chairman
Senator Suleiman Nazif.

The amendment pegs election expenses for a presidential
candidate at N5 billion and N1 billion for a governorship
candidate. A senatorial candidate cannot spend more than N250
million and a House of Representatives candidate’s limit is N100
million.

A State House of Assembly candidate should not spend more than
N30 million. Candidate for chairmanship of Area Council is also
limited to N30 million. A councillorship candidate must not spend
beyond N5 million.

No individual or other entity shall donate to a candidate more
than N10 million. Section 91(10) stipulates that a candidate, who
knowingly acts in contravention of this section, commits an offence
and is liable on conviction to a fine of 1% of the amount permitted
as the limit of campaign expenditure under the Act or imprisonment
for a term not exceeding 12 months or both.

Clause 14 was introduced into the bill to amend Section 49 (4)
of the Principal Act that deals with failure of the smart card
reader.

The clause states: “Where a Smart Card Reader deployed for
accreditation of voters fails to function in any polling unit and a
fresh Card Reader is not deployed three hours before the close of
the election in that unit, the election shall not hold but be
rescheduled and conducted within 24 hours thereafter, provided that
where the total possible votes from all the affected card readers
in the unit or units does not affect the overall result in the
constituency or election concerned, the commission shall
notwithstanding the fact that a fresh card reader is not deployed
as stipulated, announce the final results and declare a
winner.”

Clause 24 was also introduced to amend Section 87 (13) of the
Principal Act, which deals with the issue of deadline for primary
elections: ”The dates of the primaries shall not be earlier than
150 days and not later than 90 days before the date of the election
to the elective offices.”

“The same section also stipulates a specific period within which
political party primaries are required to be held since the
unintended consequences of leaving lNEC with only nine days to
collate and compile lists of candidates and political parties for
the various elections. This is because the earlier Electoral Act
Amendment Bill did not properly amend Sections 31, 33 and 85 of the
principal Act that stipulates times for submission of lists of
candidates, publication of lists of candidates, notice of
conventions and congresses for nominating candidates for
elections,” the report said.

Also, Clause 32 was introduced to amend Section 140 (4) of the
Principal Act that deals with the omission of a candidate’s name or
a political party’s logo.

The clause states: “If at the point of display or distribution
of ballot papers by the commission a candidate or his agent
discovers that his name, the name or logo of his party is omitted,
a candidate or his agent shall notify the commission and the
commission shall postpone the election to rectify the omission; and
appoint another date to conduct the election, not later than 90
days.

“Where the election is postponed due to omission of a political
party’s name or logo, the commission’s officer responsible for such
printing of party names or logo commits an offence and is liable on
conviction to imprisonment for two years or a fine of N2,000,000.00
or both.”

According to the lawmakers, the new amendment is meant to, among
others, “provide for the use of Card Readers and any other similar
technological devices in conducting elections; to provide a time
line for the submission of list of candidates as rightly captured
in Section 31 (6) and 85 (l) of the Bill; to identify criteria for
substitution of candidates, limit campaign expenses; and to address
noticed problems related to the omission of names of candidates or
logo of political parties”.

The Senate agreed with the Nazif report that all the issues
raised by President Buhari for declining assent to the bill had
been addressed in the adopted report.

In passing the bill, the Senate had restricted the amendment to
the particular areas objected to by the president.

Commenting on the latest amendment, Senator Emmanuel Bwacha
(PDP, Taraba South) hoped that the President would not send the
bill back to the legislature again.

He urged the President to assent to the bill, saying that acting
contrary would send the wrong signal to the public.

Senate President Bukola Saraki hailed the committee for its good
job, saying that the amended bill, if signed into law, would go a
long way in strengthening the nation’s electoral laws.