A lawyer, Emmanuel Anene, has accused the National Assembly members of having poor knowledge of the provisions of some of the laws they make.
He criticised certain provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022 which omitted party officials, including the president, vice president, governors and their deputies, and other statutory delegates from voting at their party primaries.
The provisions which appeared in Section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act states that, “A political party that adopts the system of indirect primaries for the choice of its candidates shall clearly outline in its constitution and rule the procedure for the democratic election of delegates to vote at the convention, congress or meeting.”
The provision implies that only delegates elected for that purpose can vote at the convention. The federal lawmakers apparently did not spot the provision until the primaries for the 2023 elections were about to commence.
But Mr Anene, who was a guest on Focus Nigeria, a programme aired on AIT on Thursday, blamed the National Assembly for the omission.
“This National Assembly, if you take it back to the Ninth Assembly – they don’t read their laws. They don’t even read their rules. They amended the Electoral Act and took themselves off the people that are going to vote (at the primaries). They later said it was a mistake but at that time it was over,” Mr Anene said.
He was responding to a question whether the National Assembly would amend the Act to accommodate the rules and guidelines made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the smooth conduct of the elections.
Mr Anene, speaking particularly about the electronic transmission of results, the INEC guidelines that has been adjudged by the Supreme Court as not binding and qualified as law since it is not captured in the Electoral Act, argued that the guidelines are laws except it conflicts with the constitution.
“INEC is given authority under the Electoral Act to make rules, regulations and guidelines. Even the courts – heads of the judiciary – chief judge of the federation, president of the court of appeal, the chief judge of the federal and state high courts are allowed by the constitution to make rules – these are laws.
“When INEC made regulations regarding the conduct of the election, the court would say it is not in the Electoral Act.
“It is a misconception of the whole thing. The guidelines, rules and regulations made by INEC will only be null and void to the extent of its inconsistency with the Electoral Act – the parent law or the constitution but if it is not inconsistent, it stands as a law,” he argued.
“INEC said that they are going to transmit results and a huge amount of money is invested in that and they (Supreme Court) are saying it is not compulsory. If it is not compulsory why money was allocated to it,” the lawyer said while disagreeing with the Supreme Court decisions on some election petitions filed by candidates of some political parties.
To address the challenge, Mr Anene urged to the National Assembly to capture all the “beautiful” regulations and guidelines made by INEC into the Electoral Act.
