2019 Elections: See How Much Presidential Nomination Forms Would Now Cost

The Nigerian Senate has finally reviewed the
electoral laws of Nigeria correcting the errors
that has been a problem in the past.
The Nigerian Senate
The Senate has passed the Electoral Act No 6 2010
(Amendment) Bill 2017 after much consideration
to correct some of the errors observed in the Act.
The amended bill which the Senate passed on
March 30, when signed into law will abolish
arbitrary fees for nomination forms fixed by
political parties.
The parties had been in control of the nomination
fees, hiking it as they please. But, all that has now
been corrected.
President Muhammadu Buhari had in the past
claimed that he borrowed money to pay for his
nomination form which cost N25 Million, in the
build up to the 2015 general elections. The Senate
has put an end to the abuse by political parties by
putting a N10 Million limit on the forms.
HERE ARE 17 HIGHLIGHTS OF THE BILL AS
COMPILED BY DAILYPOST.
– It stipulates that “there shall now be full
biometric accreditation of voters with smart card
readers and/or other technological devices, as
INEC may introduce for elections from time to
time”.
– It provides that “presiding officers must now
instantly transmit accreditation data and results
from polling units to various collation centres.
Presiding officer who contravene this shall be
imprisoned for at least five years (no option of
fine)”.
– It states that “all presiding officer must now first
record accreditation data and polling results on
INEC’s prescribed forms before transmitting
them. The data/result recorded must be the same
with what they transmitted”.
– INEC now has unfettered powers to conduct
elections by electronic voting. Besides manual
registers, INEC is now mandated to keep
electronic registers of voters.
– INEC is now mandated to publish voters’
registers on its official website(s) for public
scrutiny at least 30 days before a general election
and any INEC staff that is responsible for this but
fails to act as prescribed shall be liable on
conviction to six months’ imprisonment.
– INEC is now mandated to keep a national
electronic register of election results as a distinct
database or repository of polling unit by polling
unit results for all elections conducted by INEC.
Collation of election result is now mainly
electronic, as transmitted unit results will help to
determine final results on real time basis.
– INEC is now mandated to record details of
electoral materials – quantities, serial numbers
used to conduct elections (for proper tracking).
– A political party whose candidate dies after
commencement of an election and before the
declaration of the result of that election now has
a 14-day window to conduct a fresh primary in
order for INEC to conduct a fresh election within
21 days of the death of the party’s candidate.
– Political parties’ polling agents are now entitled
to inspect originals of electoral materials before
commencement of election and any presiding
officer who violates this provision of the law shall
be imprisoned for at least one year.
– No political party can impose qualification/
disqualification criteria, measures or conditions
on any Nigerian for the purpose of nomination
for elective offices, except as provided in the 1999
constitution.
– The election of a winner of an election can no
longer be challenged on grounds of qualification,
if he, the (winner) satisfied the applicable
requirements of sections 65, 106, 131 or 177 of
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), and he is not, as may
be applicable, in breach of sections 66, 107, 137
or 182 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic
of Nigeria, 1999. (For example, a person’s election
cannot be challenged on the grounds that he did
not pay tax, as this is not a qualifying condition
under the constitution.)
– All members of political parties are now eligible
to determine the ad-hoc delegates to elect
candidates of parties in indirect primaries. The
capacity of party executives to unduly influence
or rig party primaries has been reasonably
curtailed, if not totally removed.
Parties can no longer impose arbitrary
nomination fees on political aspirants. The bill
passed prescribes limits for each elective office as
follows:
(a) N150, 000 for a ward councillorship aspirant in
the FCT;
(b) N250, 000 for an area council chairmanship
aspirant in the FCT;
(c) N500, 000 for a house of assembly aspirant;
(d) N1, 000, 000 for a house of representatives
aspirant;
(e) N2, 000, 000 for a senatorial aspirant;
(f) N5, 000, 000) for a governorship aspirant; and
(g) N10, 000, 000) for a presidential aspirant.
– Relying on the powers of the national assembly
in Paragraph 11 of Part II (Concurrent Legislative
List) of the Second Schedule (Legislative Powers)
to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, 1999 (as amended), the senate also
passed measures reforming procedures
regulating local government elections. State
independent electoral commissions can no longer
conduct elections that do not meet minimum
standards of credibility.
Also, any INEC official who disobeys a tribunal
order for inspection of electoral materials shall be
imprisoned for two years, without an option of a

fine.