Amidst the growing anger against the amendment of Clause 53(3) which made provisions for electronic transmission of results in the Electoral Act 2016 (Amendment) Bill, 2021 passed, on Thursday, by the Senate, President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, has justified the voting pattern by lawmakers in the Red Chamber.
In the amendment proposed by Senator representing Niger North, Sabi Abdullahi, which eventually sailed through, the lawmakers resolved to allow electronic transmission of results with a proviso: that the national telecommunication regulatory agency, the Nigeria Communications Commission, (NCC) should determine when electronic transmission be deployed, subject to the approval of the National Assembly.
The amendment which the Senators on the platform of the All Progressives Congress voted No in support, overwhelmingly reads:
“The Commission may consider the electronic transmission of results provided the national network coverage is adjudged to be adequate and secured by the National Communications Commission.”
Speaking at the weekend while on a constituency visit to his Yobe North Senatorial District, the President of the Senate accused the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party of pushing the wrong narratives that only lawmakers in the ruling party voted against electronic transmission of results as contained in the recommendations of the Senate Committee on INEC led by Senator Kabiru Gaya.
Senator Lawan noted that lawmakers in the PDP equally voted No in favour of the amendment.
He said the votes cast on either sides of the subject matter cut across party lines and regional divides.
“In this respect, it was not just APC. I have seen it reported in the media that only APC Senators voted against the immediate deployment of electronic transmission.
“There are PDP Senators who voted against that but it appears that some people want to target at APC Senators. There were PDP Senators who voted against the immediate deployment. I’m using the word ‘immediate’ with an emphasis.”
Lawan maintained that the rejection of electronic voting was to ensure uniformity in the process of collation of results.
“When the majority of Senators voted against immediate application or deployment of electronic transmission of results from the polling units, to the ward, to the local government, states and federal, they didn’t say they do not believe in electronic transmission (of election results).
“All of us in the Senate, 109 of us, believe that at one point, our electoral process must deploy electronic transmission so that it eases and enhances the electoral process and give it more credibility and integrity.
“But you see, when you have not reached that stage where you could deploy the electronic transmission from every part of the country, then you have to be very careful. And no matter what anybody may say, you cannot have about 50 per cent of Nigerian voters not participating or not getting their votes counted in elections and say it doesn’t matter, that we have to start the electronic transmission.
“We know the evils of not transmitting results electronically but compare the evils of electronically transmitting just half of the electoral votes from Nigerians and say you have elected a President with 50 percent only.
“And others have voted but their results or their votes could not be electronically transmitted. This is disenfranchising Nigerians and we are not going to support this kind of thing because essentially, we are supposed to be fair to every part of Nigeria and when we voted, every part of Nigeria voted for and against(the amendment).”
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