JUSTIFICATION:
a. These new insertions will assure all party agents that electoral documents have not been tampered with and also prevent monopoly of control of election at the polling unit by any dominant party.
b. The attachment of criminal sanction to the exclusion of other parties from the election is a deterrence for the Commission’s staff and this is particularly significant in view of the expected
(43) An election conducted at any polling unit in violation of subsections (3), (4), (4A) or (5) of this section this of this section shall be invalid.
(4C) A Presiding Officer who contravenes subsections ( 3), ( 4), (4A ) or ( 5) of this section commits an offence and shall be liable, on conviction, to at least one (1 ) year imprisonment or a fine of N1,000,000, or both. ”
Section 44 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting after subsection (2), new subsections “(3)”, “(4)” and “(5)” respectively, as follows:
“(3) The Commission shall, not later than 20 days to an election, invite in writing, a political party that nominated a candidate in the election to inspect its identity appearing on samples of relevant electoral materials proposed for the election; and the political party shall state in writing within 2 days of being so invited by the Commission that it approves or disapproves of its identity as it appears on the samples.
(4) Unless the political party disapproves of its identity under subsection (3) of this section, it shall not complain of unlawful exclusion from the election under this Act in relation to its identity appearing on electoral materials used for the election.
5) A political party that fails to comply with an invitation by the commission under subsection (3) of this section shall be deemed to have approved its identity on samples of electoral materials proposed to be used for an election.”
Greater Attention To Such Issues From The Proposed Election Offences Commission
c. Also, recording of the election process will provide electronic evidence to Checkmate electoral irregularities and for the prosecution of alleged electoral offenders.
JUSTIFICATION:
These insertions are intended to reduce election petitions/rerun elections predicated on unlawful exclusion due to the Commission’s omission or misstatement of parties’ identities on election materials, names and Iogos especially.
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