The new Electoral Act signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday holds potential for the improvement of the Nigerian electoral system, according to stakeholders.
Investment banker/founder of ANAP Foundation, Atedo Peterside, on his verified Twitter handle, expressed his gratitude to President Buhari.
He stated: Thank you @MBuhari, for signing into law an Electoral Act that constitutes a significant improvement over previous legislation. The #GoNigeria movement wishes to thank Mr. President, our legislators, Civil Society, etc. for this team effort.
Others who spoke on the new Electoral Act 2022 expressed the optimism that the new legal framework would improve Nigerias election significantly in so many ways such as the electronic transmission of results and early release of funds to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which would hasten preparations.
Coordinator, YIAGA Africa Centre for Legislative Engagement, Ernest Ereke,
said with the new Act, INEC will receive funds for a general election not later than 360 days, or one year before the date for the election, and this will help to improve its preparation.
Ereke also said the new law would promote inclusivity by empowering INEC to make provisions for the people with disabilities to vote and for early conduct of party primaries which could help resolve pre-election matters.
It has strengthened the power of INEC to reject results that are declared under circumstances that are not recognised by the law for instance under duress.
Equally important in terms of strengthening INEC is the provision to provide for the neutrality of those who will get into the Commission by ensuring that those who want to serve the Commission at whatever level are; whether as permanent staff or ad-hoc staff of the Commission will have to declare if theyre politically affiliated if they are partisan, Ereke said.
He also expressed the hope that On the part of candidate nomination, primaries will now have to come early. Primaries have to be concluded not later than 180 days to the date for the conduct of elections. Campaigns will now start earlier; therefore, it helps us. Nigerians will know the candidates very well; also, issues that could arise from the conduct of party primaries would have been resolved before the conduct of the election so that we will not be going back to pre-election issues.
Also, for the very first time, INEC has been mandated to make every other decision that is necessary to ensure that our citizens who are living with disabilities, visually or physically impaired, can vote; so, INEC should provide braille and any other facility to make it possible for them to participate in elections, he further said.
Similarly, a lecturer in the Department of Political Science, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Christian Okeke, said INEC no longer has the excuse of lack of formidable legal framework.
He urged the Commission to go to its archives and dig out those infractions with regards to the failure of past elections and begin to address them head-on, using the new law as a springboard.
On his part, the deputy National Youth Leader of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), Solomon Gbenga, agreed that though the Electoral Act could help in the area of electronic transmission of results, there was nothing too special about it as most of the provisions have been there.
