Reps working on legislation to abolish by-elections

A law seeking to repeal the provisions in the 1999 constitution for by-elections into vacant seats at the Senate and House of Representatives is underway at the lower chamber.

The legislation entitled ‘An Act to amend section 68(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999’, is sponsored by Kwewum Shawulu, PDP-Taraba.

The sponsor of the bill seeks to amend section 68(1) of the Constitution by adding a paragraph (I) immediately after the existing paragraph (h)”, to read if “he dies during the continuance of his tenure or term of office, in which case, the independent National Electoral Commission shall not be required to conduct a by-election to fill the vacancy, but shall ask the political party which sponsored him at the main election, to nominate and forward to it a replacement for the deceased member of the Senate or of the House of Representatives.’’

It was learnt that the legislation also sought to achieve same for representation at 36 state houses of assembly.

The bill, which also amends section 109(1), read, “If he dies during the continuance of his tenure or term of office, in which case the Independent National Electoral Commission shall not be required to conduct a by-election to fill the vacancy, but shall ask the political party which sponsored him at the main election to nominate and forward to it, a replacement for the deceased member of the State House of Assembly.”

The sponsor of the piece of legislation in an interview with Vanguard, said: “The amendments will save INEC and the public a lot of cost. This is what even INEC itself, wants.

‘’It is ideal to allow political parties the benefit to nominate replacements for people who may have died in the course of their representation or some other circumstance.”

-Vanguard