On Tuesday, some members of the House of Representatives walked out of plenary in protest against the move to reverse the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment bill.
The lawmakers exited the chamber after they attempted to make electronic transmission of election results mandatory without manual collation serving as a fallback when technology fails.
New Telegraph had earlier reported that the Speaker of the House, Rt. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas called for the executive session shortly after a motion to rescind the bill was put to a voice vote, with members divided over whether the “ayes” or “nays” had prevailed.
However, on return from the executive session, members stood on their feet and prevented the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, from continuing the proceedings.
Eventually, aggrieved members walked out of the plenary.
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The lawmakers protested over Clause 60(3), which deals with compulsory electronic transmission of results.
The fresh amendment to section 60(3) provides that: “The Presiding Officer shall electronically transmit the results from each polling unit to the REV portal, and such transmission shall be done after the prescribed Form ECSA has been signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and/or countersigned by the candidates or Polling agents where available at the Polling Unit.
Provided that if the electronic transmission of the result fails as a result of communication failure and it becomes impossible to transmit the result contained in the form: EC&A, signed and stamped by the Presiding Officer and countersigned by the candidates or polling agents where available at the polling unit, the form EC&A shall remain the primary source of collation and declaration of the result”.
Regardless, opposition lawmakers insisted that the provision should end after the first paragraph — effectively removing the clause that allows manual collation in the event of electronic transmission failure
