Senate may vote to amend 1999 constitution today

[bayo4luv]

The Senate may today vote to give legal backing to its decision to amend the 1999 constitution. It may also vote to give financial autonomy to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the National Assembly, and the judiciary. 

The Senate had on Tuesday amended the constitution after receiving the report of its committee on the review of the 1999 constitution headed by Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu. For the amendments effected to be legal, the Senate needs the votes of at least 73 or more senators for each section amended at the plenary on Tuesday and each senator will vote 'yes' or 'nay' by the use of the newly installed electronic voting machine in the chamber.  The amended section of the constitution which now states that elections shall be held by INEC not earlier than 150 days and not later than 90 days before swearing in will now have to await the passage of the House of Representatives bill and two thirds of the state assemblies across the country. Ayogu Eze, Senate spokesman, however, said the dates for the election could not be arrived at until all the processes of amending the constitution are completed, saying "until then, we cannot say for sure the dates for the elections". 

Amended Section 81 states: "The amount standing to the credit of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC); National Assembly, and the judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation shall be paid directly to the said bodies, respectively; in the case of the judiciary, such amount shall be paid to the National Judicial Council for disbursement to the heads of the courts established for the federation and the states under Section 6 of this constitution". 

The amendment still empowers the president of the country to appoint chairman of INEC, but Section 160 states: "Provided in the case of the INEC, its powers to make its own rules or otherwise regulate its own procedure shall not be subject to the approval or control of the president". 

Ekweremadu, while justifying recommending the president to continue to appoint the INEC chairman, said "we should be concerned about the integrity of the institution and the people appointed and not the person appointing". He explained that the committee spoke with different shades of opinion including the electoral chief of Ghana, Gyan, who told them that the process of electing the chairman of the electoral commission of Ghana is similar to Nigeria. 

He said the committee rejected the recommendation of the Uwais panel that the appointment of INEC chairman should go through National Judicial Council, saying "we know how many of those justices appointed by NJC that we can vouch for". 

Ekweremadu noted that what is important in the appointment of the INEC chairman is the antecedent and integrity of those to be appointed and maintained that Nigerians should be concerned about the person that would be appointed. He hinted that the 2006 Electoral Act would be repealed with a view to reviewing the penalties including jail terms to make election malpractices a serious offence. 

Ekweremadu said from the amended sections of the constitution, elections should hold between January and March, next year, but said he hoped the House of Representatives and state assemblies will expedite action on the amendment of the constitution.  On tenure of office, the amended constitution states: "Where a re-election has taken place and the person earlier sworn in wins the re-election, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into consideration".

Senate may vote to amend 1999 constitution today

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