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Emameh Gabriel writes that the National Assembly is in the news again as controversy over the Electoral Act Amendment (2021) may lead to a stormy session today
Disturbed by the violence, ballot box snatching, bloodshed and other electoral malfeasance that have overtime characterised elections in the Nigeria, the Nigerian Senate in 2019 initiated fresh moves to address these challenges through a rejig of the Electoral Act. The move rekindled the hopes and confidence of Nigerian electorates on the Ahmed Lawan-led National Assembly.
The clamour from key political stakeholders and the informed public is that until some of these challenges are addressed head on, elections in the country will continue to record needless setbacks and human casualties.
New polling units will enhance access during elections
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained some of the factors that make creation of additional polling units very compelling: Nigeria’s rapidly growing population and changing demographics, registration of new voters over many election cycles, establishment of new settlements, including camps for internally displaced persons (IDPs), and the need to decongest crowded polling units that often engender violence in urban areas. These no doubt are noble objectives. But mutual suspicions between and among Nigeria’s competing ethnic nationalities which made INEC to shelve the exercise in 2015 are rearing their heads again.