Omo-Agege Leads Debate On Electoral Act Seeking E-voting For Future Polls

Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege on Wednesday led the debate on an electoral reform bill which seeks to mandate the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to adopt electronic voting method for future polls.

The bill which scaled through second reading in the red chamber on Wednesday was referred to the Senate Committee on INEC for further legislative action.

The Committee is to report back to the Senate in four weeks’ time.

The deputy president of the senate, Omo-Agege, while leading debate on the bill said, “The sole interest here is to reason together as true representative of our people in synergy with the Executive Branch and ultimately give this country a modern electoral law that is fully responsive to identified challenges in the electoral process. We can and should do this in the best interest of our people. None of us will be here forever, but our work here will speak for us in history”, Efe Duku, Special Adviser to the deputy president of the senate on Legislative and Plenary Matters, quoted his boss to have said.

The bill which is being co-sponsored by Omo-Agege and Abubakar Kyari (APC, Borno state), seeks amendment of section 65 of the Electoral Act 2010 by introducing a “National Electronic Register of Election Results”.

The section seeks to compel INEC to operate an electronic database into which all results in an election should be transmitted.