By Ezrel Tabiowo
Abuja
A move by the Senate to resolve the likely arousal of all disputes from the death of a presidential or governorship candidate yesterday suffered setback in the Senate following the upper chamber’s decision to suspend amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 in that direction.
Its decision to suspend amendment of the electoral act along this line was reached owing to the contentious nature which debate on the matter could assume when subject to consideration.
Also, the Senate while considering the report of its committee on INEC, was dissatisfied with the recommendations of the panel which focused on the mode of substituting dead candidates, and as such referred the report back for further legislative input.
The Senate committee on INEC noted that the amendment of the Electoral Act 2010, in this direction seeks to provide for the substitution of a dead governorship or presidential candidate before the announcement of result with the first runner-up in the party primary.
The report added that the amendment was meant to circumvent the repeat of the crisis which accompanied the death of the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Abubakar Audu, at the November 2015 gubernatorial election in Kogi state.
The amendment, which was among several amendments being carried out on the Electoral Act 2010, was meant to amend Section 36 of the Electoral Act “by inserting a new sub-section 3, which provides for the substitution of a candidate of a political party who dies before the declaration of the result of an election with the first runner up in the party’s primaries (which was won by the deceased candidate.”