Senate rejects another electoral reform bill

The Senate has stepped down discussion on a Bill seeking to further define the role of police personnel on election duty. The Bill was presented for second reading, but could not get the support needed to push it through to become a law.

The Bill was to further amend the Police Act of 1967 and is one of the six electoral reform bills culled from the recommendations of the Muhammed Uwais-led Electoral Reform Committee sent to the national assembly by the presidency.

Kill Bill

The senators had intended to kill the Bill for its poor crafting by the executive draftsmen. The senators complained that the bill was too frivolous and would be a waste of time if they had to deliberate on it. It was however withdrawn by the senate president in good time.

Joy Emordi (PDP Anambra State) was particularly vexed by the quality of bills that have emanated from the presidency recently.

Out of the six electoral reform Bills the executive forwarded to the national assembly, two others have suffered similar fate: the Bill on Political Party Registration Agency was thrown out entirely due to its “inferiority” and attempting to allocate too much power to the president, while the Bill to amend the Act establishing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was withdrawn for reconstruction.

“They should better focus attention on the welfare of the police rather than sending us such bills,” Mrs. Emordi said.

Arguing in the same line, Lee Maeba (PDP River State) said the only condition for the Bill to be sustained is if it acquires some clauses that will enhance the welfare of police officers.

Others argued that the Bill does not help the advancement of sanity and security in voting booths and so is not significant.

Bad day for Bills

Another Bill which sought to establish the Chartered Institute of Cost and Management Accountants (CICMA) was also thrown out by the senate on Tuesday.

The Bill was seeking to establish a body that will break the monopoly of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN), but ICAN was opposed to its establishment saying that if the organisation is allowed to stand, it will encourage the proliferation of counterfeit accounting bodies, which will in turn breed corruption.

The Bill was passed by the last Senate in 2005 but was not signed into law by the past administration. It was resurrected, re-worked, and passed by the House of Representatives this year and subsequently presented to the senate for concurrent assent.

The senators however argued that there were flaws in the Bill and voted against it even against the wishes of the senate president, David Mark.