Ezekwesili Faults Senate’s ‘Ambiguous’ Clause, Demands Mandatory E-transmission of Election Results

Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, on Tuesday joined protesters at the national assembly over senate’s rejection of real-time electronic transmission of election results.

On February 4, the Senate passed an amendment to the Electoral Act, reducing the timeline for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish a notice of election results from 360 days to 180 days.

The senate also ruled out the mandatory real-time transmission of results.

Addressing journalists at the protest ground, Ezekwesili said the senate must not be allowed to pass an “ambiguous” provision that grants discretionary powers instead of making electronic transmission compulsory.

“I have been particularly loud in stating that if the senate gets away with a provision that is ambiguous, that gives power of discretion to determine the ifs and the buts, instead of making the clause mandatory, that every vote must count in this country,” she said.

She noted that a mandatory real-time transmission clause is essential to electoral integrity.

Ezekwesili added that such a provision would prevent a repeat of controversies surrounding polling unit result sheets in previous elections.

She accused lawmakers resisting the mandatory clause of “undermining democracy’.

“The way that our votes will count is to have this mandatory provision that makes it the core principle of our electoral transparency,” she said.

“No longer shall our votes be subject to the kinds of cancellations of results that we saw in EC8A in previous elections,” she said.

“The only reason they don’t want transparency through the mandatory provision for there to be instant, real-time, electronic transmission of the results is because they want to continue to capture our democracy.

“The society is labouring under the weight of poor governance that we have seen so far in our democracy and now the citizens are saying enough.

“There is no reason why people who call themselves democrats hate transparency.

“Why are you introducing extraneous laws? If these people pass any bill that has programmed rigging, we should know that both the executive and legislature have agreed to rig the election.”

Ezekwesili’s appearance adds to mounting pressure on the national assembly to retain a mandatory real-time electronic transmission clause in the amended Electoral Act.

On Febuary 9, Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, led a group of protesters to the national assembly complex in Abuja over the senate’s rejection of real-time electronic transmission of election results.

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Rotimi Amaechi, former governor of Rivers state and ex-minister of transportation, also joined protesters in Abuja on February 10 to demand the mandatory electronic transmission of election results.