Senate tells Buhari to appoint 20 resident electoral commissioners

Ike Ekweremadu, deputy senate president, has blamed the spate of inconclusive elections across the country on absence of resident electoral commissioners in 20 states.

In a motion on the floor of the senate on Tuesday, Ekweremadu urged the senate to call on President Muhammadu Buhari to nominate qualified persons to fill in the vacant positions at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)‎.

He also urged the senate‎ to ask INEC “to immediately conclude all pending rerun elections in the country,” and to “constitute an ad hoc committee to hold a public hearing to review the performance of INEC in the past one year with a view to ascertain the factors that may have caused the perceived decline of the electoral system”.

“The senate notes with deep concern, that at least 20 states of the federation have no resident electoral commissioners, contrary to section 14 (2) of Third Schedule of the 1999 constitution (as amended),” Ekweremadu said.

“The senate further notes that INEC cannot function optimally without the full complement of members that will superintend the activities of other personnel.”

After his presentation, the senate endorsed the requests, and it called on the president to immediately fill in the vacant positions at INEC.