Election Petitions Should Be Resolved Before Swearing-In – Senate

The Senate Committee on Electoral Matters has said it is working on approving the time within which to file and conclude election petitions, adding that post-election matters should be concluded before the swearing-in.

This is as it said the current electoral law does not make it mandatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission to upload election results.

The committee, however, promised that it will make it mandatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to upload election results online, adding that it is working on amending the law.

The committee chairman, Senator Sharafadeen Alli, made this known on Tuesday.

Alli also said the committee had proposed resolving all pre-election matters before the election and upgrading election technology.

He said, “That is one of the things that we are going to do. Under the current law, it is not mandatory for INEC to upload results, that is what the court has said. But as we are going forward, it is going to be mandatory.

“We looked at elections and election petitions. In terms of legislation about election petitions, what we think is all pre-election matters resolved before the election.

“We are also looking at a situation where election petitions are concluded before swearing-in.

“We are thinking of approving the time within which to file and conclude election petitions so that somebody will not be sworn in, that is what led us into having these off-cycle elections. There would have been no need for it if we were able to conclude election petitions before the swearing-in.

“We are looking at the development of technology, improvement on technology because a lot of Nigerians were disappointed when the use of the IReV didn’t work, but going forward we will try to ensure INEC do something about that,” he said.