N/A, INEC Independent, S' Houses Loose Autonomy, Polls For January

PHOTO: DEPUTY SENATE PRESIDENT' SENATOR IKE EKWEREMADU.

ABUJA, July 21, (THEWILL) - The National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is now financially independent, meaning that it would henceforth be drawing its finances directly from the federation account.

But the State legislatures naively shot themselves down as it would continue to be remotely controlled by the executives as the section 121 (b) of the revised constitution failed to make the required two-third of the State House of Assembly.

This became clear as the Senate formally affirmed and gazette the revised documents that also confirmed that the general election would indeed hold January 2011.

The clause that would have guaranteed financial autonomy for the State Assemblies missed the mark, when the Katsina State Assembly withdrew their earlier vote that passed the clause, thus limiting the number of states that approved it to twenty-two; two short of the required 24 states.

"Section 121 which grant financial independence to the state houses of assemblies could not get the required votes of 24 states to be amended. Only 22 states voted to be independent of their executives", said Senator Ike Ekweremadu, chairman of the review committee.

Although he earlier announced by that section got the required 24 state votes, he later withdrew his comments saying a cross check revealed that Katsina State, one of the states believed to have voted for their independence, had two conflicting versions and was therefore dropped.

Also, Kwara State which voted for the independence of the state judiciary was later found not to have voted for the autonomy clause.

However, the National Assembly and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) became financially autonomous as the states voted for it.

On the elections, the January dates is premised on the amendments, which stipulates that elections are to hold on a date not earlier than 150 days and not later than 120 days before the expiration of the term of political office holders.

The take off of the amended constitution was signaled, on Tuesday, by the gazetting of the amended constitution which is cited as ‘1999 first amendment act’ by the senate on Tuesday.

According to the Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, who chaired the Senate Committee on the Amendments of the Constitution, the Senate is aware of the little time left to the elections and are prepared to assist INEC to achieve the election.

The Senate is preparing to pass a new electoral act that will extend deadline for voters registration and submission of candidates’ name to INEC to two months before the actual elections.

All states, except Bauchi, voted in favour of the new electioneering time frame. Bauchi State preferred the old time frame which stipulated that elections shall not be earlier than sixty days and not later than thirty days before the expiration of the term of office of the last holder of that office.

Bauchi State was notorious for voting yes on only five of the 66 sections where amendments to the constitution were proposed by the National Assembly. However, more than half of the amendments sought by the federal legislators where turned down by their state counterparts. Only 29 of the 66 sections were passed by the required two-third majority of the states.

Other sections of the constitution that were amended in the constitution includes sections that grants the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) both financial and political freedom.

Also, the new constitution stipulates in section 135(2) that "in the event of re-run election, the time spent in the office before the date the election was annulled, shall be taken into account" for the president. This same rule also applies to all other political offices.

Section 145 was also amended. It now reads: "Whenever the president is proceeding on vacation or is otherwise unable to discharge the functions of his office, he shall transmit a written declaration to the president of the senate and speaker of the House of Representatives to that effect, until he transmits to them a written declaration to the contrary, the vice president shall perform the functions of the president as Acting president."

The constitution also provided that in an event the President is unable to transmit the vacation letter in 21 days, the Vice President will be empowered to the acting capacity by a simple majority vote of the senate and House of Reps. This rule also applies to the state governors in section 190.

Section 137 which disqualifies persons indicted by administrative panels from running for political office was successfully expunged.

The amendments also give the national assembly the power to make laws or confer same on INEC to ensure that political parties observe the practice of internal democracy in section 228.

Section 233 empowers the Supreme Court to hear Governor and Deputy Governors’ election appeal cases while the court of original jurisdiction for such cases is the Appeal Court. The High Court is to hear election cases of senate and House of Reps.

Nonetheless, the Independent candidacy clause which is the core of electoral reforms was dropped by the states.

Recall that the introduction of independent candidate clause to the constitution followed the recommendations of the Electoral Reform Committee which was set up by the late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and led by Justice Mohammad Uwais.

The independent candidate clause in the constitution stipulates that aspirants for political offices – including offices of the governors and president - need not be members of any political party as is currently the issue.

The state assemblies also rejected the attempt to delete section 68 (g), which prohibits cross carpeting for legislators from the constitution.

The Deputy senate president, however, said the national assembly will re introduce the rejected sections with direct influence on electoral reforms in their next line of constitution amendment"...hoping that state assemblies will be disposed to pass them then."

He added that the next constitution review will focus on state creation, fiscal federation, state police and devolution of powers.