Rather than endorse a bill seeking to substitute the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM) Law 2012, stakeholders in the state recently, campaigned for a reconciliation of the bill with the Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution. USMAN IBN A. LAPAI reports
Stakeholders at a public hearing organised by the Kaduna State House of Assembly on a bill for a law to substitute the state Independent Electoral Commission (SIECOM) Law, 2012, have advocated for the reconciliation of the proposed amendment bill with the Constitution and Electoral Act.
Th e stakeholders called for the reconciliation of the laws especially, in the area of electronic voting machine captured in the bill, as well as downward review of the legitimate age for people aspiring to contest in elections, from 30 years to 25 years, in line with the ‘Too Young to run’ bill before the National Assembly. Th ey also rged for removal of the section that request intended candidates to pay a particular fees to SIECOM, before contesting local government elections.
According to the stakeholders, no state law supersede the Constitution and the Electoral Act of a country, saying that the section 50 of the Electoral Act prohibiting electronic voting for now, urging both the State Assembly and the State Independent Electoral Commissions to wait until the National Assembly complete the proposed amendment. Th ey urged that the proposed items can be include in the next amendment of the law.
Th e Kaduna State chairman, Conference for Political Parties, Alhaji Umar Ibrahim, said the electronic voting if used during the forthcoming local government elections may put the electorate to risk as people will be voting under the supervision of a qualifi ed operator of the voters machine and that will abuse the right of one man one vote. According to him, Kaduna state citizens need adequate education on how to vote electronically which cannot be achieve now before the forthcoming election, noting that the time is too shot for that.
He expressed concerned over the section of the bill that proposed that a candidate should pay a fees to SIECOM, from N100,000 to N200,000 before he or she can contest for an election, describing it as a means of disfrachising intended aspirants and that is not included in the Electoral Act.
Earlier, in his keynote address, the Speaker, Kaduna State House of Assembly, Alhaji Aminu Abdullahi Shagali, said the state government has observed the way and manner local government administration had been running since 1999 this date and has come up with a realistic Programs and direction for 23 local councils in form of the bill. According to him, the public hearing is organized to give room for all the stakeholders in the state to come and made their contribution before the passage of the bill into law.
He added that his expectation is that the local government and SIECOM will have a very good structure to operate without any interference from any arm of the state government when bill fi nally become law.
