A group, Yiaga Africa has called for the immediate review of electoral laws in Nigeria.
The director of programmes, Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, at an advocacy roundtable on legislative reform for improved local government elections in Lagos, said electoral laws should be amended in line with the Electoral Act 2022 which currently provides in section 150 that local government elections should be conducted in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act that regulates area council elections.
She said, “They do not need to change all of it, but amend some sections. We want to see issues around the timeline of the elections to guarantee that every four years there is a local government election in Lagos State and every other state; the second is on the tenure of office and the new electoral law proposes four years for local government and it also creates a sense of autonomy for them.
‘’The proposal is also to amend the Lagos State Electoral Law to have a four-year tenure as local government chairperson and the council.
“The first thing is to join the call of a lot of Nigerians asking for local government autonomy to be part of this current amendment, the 19th National Assembly is in the process of amending the constitution,’’ she said.
YIAGA pointed out that though the 9th National Assembly passed it, it failed at the state level, saying they are hoping that this time around, the state assemblies would vote in support of the provision to amend the constitution for local government autonomy.
She stressed the need to fund State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), lamenting that funding still remains one of the greatest challenges hindering local government elections.
“There is an urgent need to fund SIECs for administrative and fiscal autonomy for the SIECs to be able to function and conduct elections as at when due. We believe that by reviewing this law, we would strengthen the independence of SIECs and also provide some clarity around how elections should be conducted and most importantly, to build citizens’ trust in the process of Local Government elections,’’ she urged.
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