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By Bimbola Oyesola
The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre ( CISLAC) has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for signing the amended Electoral Act into law.
Executive director of the centre, Mr. Auwal Rafsanjani, who doubles as chairman, Transition Monitoring Group (TMG), thanked the National Assembly, the media, civil society organisations (CSOs) and Nigerians for the collective success of the new amended Electoral Act.
He noted that, under democracy, people could not be suppressed by a few interests groups, noting that CSOs would continue to demand electoral transparency for enthronement of good governance in Nigeria.
He said, “President Muhammadu Buhari has fulfilled his obligation by upholding the values of democracy and assenting the electoral bill.
“It would be recalled that CSOs, in Abuja, recently demanded Mr. President’s assent to the electoral bill, during a protest.
“The protest, which CISLAC was part of, became necessary owing to the fact that the President Buhari-led administration declined assent to the bill twice.”
Rafsanjani said the Electoral Act would guarantee INEC’s financial independence, “which in turn would ensure the electoral umpire gets early funding on time to prepare for election. Initially, we reduced the conversation of the bill to direct and indirect primaries, but it is a lot more.”
“If you think about early funding for the election, this electoral act provides funding for election to the commission at least a year before the election.
“Why is that important, if you think about the conduct of elections, postponement of elections that we had in 2019, 2015, even 2011 they were attributed to issues around elections operations and logistics management, “ he stated.
He expressed that when INEC receives the funds early, it gives it better time to plan.
The CISLAC boss noted that the bill had provisions that addressed multiple voting and voting by proxy as well as tampering with election results at the results collation centres.
He added that it would also give INEC the exclusive rights and independence to review results announced under duress.
Rafsanjani opined that the beauty of the amended act was that there are sections that would prevent politicians from influencing or harassing polling officials from declaring fabricated results.
He however appealed to CSOs and the media not to relent in fighting for social justice, noting that, only then would the country be able to achieve a better Nigeria.
