Senator Orji Uzor Kalu says the National Assembly committee on harmonisation of the Electoral Act will meet today and finalise its decision on the bill.
Orji, an ex-governor of Abia State, said this on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily.
“Regarding the feedback from Nigerians about the Electoral Act amendment, I can tell you it is on track. We had an emergency sitting last week, and we are having another one today. We were originally supposed to resume on the 24th, possibly for budget hearings, but we have shut down the budget hearings for now to focus on the Electoral Committee,” the Abia North lawmaker said on the breakfast show.
“I am a member of the Joint Harmonization Committee. I was in the office from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. When they suggested we go to the Senate President’s house to harmonize our decision, I declined because I needed to eat and sleep after sitting at the National Assembly all day. That process—the harmonization—has officially started. You will hear from us soon.”
His comment came more than one week after the Senate appointed a 12-member committee to work with the House of Representatives for the harmonisation of the Electoral Act.
This was after the lawmakers opted for a flexible model for the transmission of election results, citing technical issues with the network.
The Senate approved the electronic transmission of results but omitted the “real-time” clause. It said the manual collation of results will be the backup option in cases of technological failure.
Their position differs from that of the House of Representatives, which approved the “real-time” upload of results from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
The Senate’s decision on Clause 60 (3) of the amended Electoral Act Bill prompted backlash from Nigerians and civil society organisations over the omission of the “real-time” phrase.
However, Kalu has defended the decision, saying it was in the best interest of Nigerians.
“What do you mean by real-time? We never discussed electronic voting; we talked about transmission. Voting is always manual. Transmission happens as we finish the job,” he said.
Senator Kalu also clarified his position about a trending video of him commenting on the electronic transmission of election results.
“Regarding the ‘no network’ comment—I said that six years ago. Some hoodlums on social media took that and claimed I wouldn’t vote for electronic transmission. That is not true. As a Christian, I can tell you 95% of senators support electronic transmission,” Kalu said.
“Back then, I said there was no network even in my village. Since then, the MD of MTN and my friend at Globacom (Mike Adenuga) have installed masts in front of my house. There is no more excuse.”
