The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is yet to announce a date for the conduct of bye election into six vacant positions in the National Assembly, The Nation has learnt.The six vacant positions are made up of four House of Representatives seats in Edo, Oyo, Kaduna and Jigawa, while the two Senate seats were left vacant in Edo and Anambra States.While two of the seats became vacant as a result of the last governorship election in Edo state, the other four seats became vacant as a result of the death of the elected representatives......Read The Full Article>>.....Read The Full Article>>
Current Edo state governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo and his Deputy, Denis Idahosa were members of the National Assembly representing Edo Central Senatorial district and Ovia federal constituency.Other seats were left vacant by the death of Senator Ifeanyi Utah (Anambra South Senatorial district), Isa Dogonyaro (Garki/Babura federal constituency of Jigawa state), Ekene Abubakar Adams (Chicken/Kahuku Federal Constituency of Kaduna state) and Olaide Akinremi (Ibadan North federal Constituency).
In a recent interaction, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun said the Commission will announce a date fie the bye elections when it is ready.
While the laws of the land, including the 1999 Constitution and the Electoral Act provides that all constituencies be represented in Parliament, the Electoral 2022 did not make any specific provision on the conduct of such bye elections.The section of the law that deals with bye-elections isn’t explicitly stated in a single section. However, according to the Electoral Act 2022, bye-elections are typically held to fill vacant seats in the National Assembly or State Houses of Assembly.However, the Electoral Act 2022 provides guidelines for the conduct of bye-elections, including the process for nominating candidates, the timeline for the election, and the procedures for voting and counting.
At the time of this report, it could not be ascertained the number of state constituencies for which bye elections are to be conducted by the Commission.But at a stakeholders’ meeting with Media Executives on the 1st of November, 2024, the INEC Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu said the commission was working out the logistics for the conduct of the bye elections, adding that it will soon announce the date for the elections.Prof Mahmood said that the Commission was carrying out consultations on the possibility of having political parties that won election into the parliament, but lost such member either due to death or resignation to nominate a candidate to fill the vacant position.
According to him, the tenure of lawmakers are tied to the particular assembly they were elected to, hence the need to ensure that such positions are not left vacant.He said conduct of bye elections has created lots of logistic issues for the commission, adding that between July 2023 when the current government came into power, it has about 20 bye elections.He explained that in other parts of the world, the political party whose member dies simply nominate another person to take over the seat, adding that in Nigeria, this is not the case.
