BY Samuel Akpan
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the electoral bill into law.
The president signed the bill on Friday at a ceremony held at the federal executive council (FEC) chamber in the presidential villa in Abuja.
Auwal Rafsanjani, executive director of CISLAC, in a statement on Friday, said the new act contains measures that address fundamental challenges in the electoral process.
Rafsanjani who is also the chairman of Transition Monitoring Group, said civil society organisations (CSOs) will continue to demand electoral openness to ensure effective governance in the country.
He said the act gives the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) “financial independence” which will ensure that the electoral umpire gets early funding to prepare for elections.
“Initially, we reduced the conversation of the bill to direct and indirect primaries, but it’s a lot more. If you think about early funding for the election? This electoral act provides funding for election to the electoral commission at least a year before the election,” he said.
“Why is that important, if you think about the conduct of elections, postponement of elections that we had in 2019, 2015, even 2011 were attributed to issues around elections operations and logistics management. So when INEC receives the funds early, it gives better time to plan,” said Rafsanjani.
“The bill has provisions that address multiple voting and voting by proxy as well as tampering with election results at the results collation centres.
“It will also give INEC the exclusive rights and independence to review results announced under duress. In other words, the bill bars politicians from influencing or harassing polling officials from declaring fabricated results.”
TheCable had reported how CISLAC and 25 other CSOs protested in Abuja to demand Buhari’s assent to the bill.
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