The senator from Bayelsa West, Seriake Dickson, has urged the senators and representatives working on the Electoral Amendment Bill to fully implement the House’s version.
On Wednesday, while speaking to journalists in Abuja, Dickson made this demand, stating that weakening the electronic transmission provision could compromise the integrity of the elections.
This comes just 48 hours after the Senate allowed manual collation as a backup in case technology fails and reinstated electronic transmission of election results to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) through their Result Viewing Portal.
Members of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, including the former governor of Bayelsa State, claim that stakeholders and legislators have already laboured extensively to improve the country’s electoral framework prior to the most recent changes made by the Senate.
“We laboured diligently on revisions to the election laws for nearly two years as members of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters. I believe it would be a good idea for us to follow the House of Representatives’ lead.
“In Abuja and Lagos, we had public hearings, workshops, and joint sessions with the House of Representatives. We also met with INEC, the technical committee, consultants, and other interested parties.
Together with INEC, we reached a consensus on a framework to govern future elections in our nation.
But we were unable to finish the procedure in time before disaster occurred. “The entire state and my family are in mourning after the sudden collapse and death of our Deputy Governor,” he stated.