A Bill that allows Independent candidates to contest election without necessarily being a member of a political party passed first reading on Thursday in the House of Representatives.
The Bill seeks to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow individuals to compete in elections without having to do so under the platform of a political party.
The bill is titled, “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to Allow for the Participation of Candidates Who Are Not Sponsored by Political Parties in the Presidential, Governorship, National Assembly, State Houses of Assembly and Local Government Council Elections.”
The bill, sponsored by the spokesperson for the House, Rep Akin Rotimi Jnr, representing Ikole-Oye Federal Constituency, Ekiti State in the 10th Assembly aims to amend sections 7, 65, 106, 131, 177, and 221 of the Constitution.
Rep Rotimi while briefing journalists said, the bill if passed to law shall offer a greater opportunity to Nigerian women, youths and most especially people living with disability to exercise their rights of contesting in an election without facing the rigours of primaries as is the case with political parties.
He said, “.We believe in inclusive governance, and part of that means that we are democratizing the political space for people like you and I, to have access to the electoral process as well, and to ensure that every Nigerian is also part of the process. To also ensure that, most especially the vulnerable population, such as women, youth, persons living with disability, are also given a level playing field to explore opportunities within the politics, law and electoral landscape.
He noted that, “The interest in the bill is to further democratize Nigeria’s electoral process.
You know, currently, the Constitution as amended doesn’t have the provisions for independent candidates. So it’s a constitutional amendment bill which would, of course, go through the entire process that has been outlined as far as the sixth official to the 1999 Constitution as amended is concerned. There are comparable jurisdictions where this already happen. There are a lot of countries where you have very strong parties, extremely solid parties, but, still have independent candidacy provisions.”
He noted that the Bill is an opportunity to democratize the electoral space, to allow for greater inclusion from those who otherwise might not have the opportunity to be sponsored by party.
As regards the provision for qualifications in terms of academic and otherwise, Hon Rotimi explained further that Independent candidates in terms of qualifications for anybody to stand for office, is the same qualifications that will be required with those sponsored by political parties. Adding that the bill is prescribing a process through which someone can emerge, right through a process whereby one have to secure a minimum threshold of voters, registered voters in the particular area within which he or she is contesting for elections.
He argued that the bill will address the disparity in political offices. “ It’s not just about women, as you know, in Parliament today, we have four female senators out of 109 and you have about 14 female members out of 360. Of course, we see there is a great disparity, and we need to look for different avenues to ensure that we give opportunities to everyone who derserve it, like people living with disabilities, that are also grossly underrepresented in Parliament and in elective offices.
“So, this is not a bill that is exclusive to just parliament. It’s not just the National Assembly. It’s also even for the position of president, governors and other elective positions that are also specified, even down to the grassroots – local government; chairman, councillors and all of that, for people to be able to say, I feel that I am qualified to contest. I might not be able to get a party to sponsor me, but at the same time, I can go through the process of securing nomination from a minimum number of registered voters within my constituency that you want to contest for, and then that serves as your primaries to be able to stand for election.
According to the House Spokesman, “by God’s grace, when it passes, it will need consequential adjustments to other external legislation, like the Electoral Act and some other existing legislation for it to be able to have full force.”
Meanwhile, the house spokesman noted that he is engaging his colleagues, and different stakeholders including the media and according him the responses gotten so far are overwhelming and a pointer to the fact that they are prepared for the second reading.
“So, this is just the beginning of the process of engaging with our political parties, engaging my colleagues within the house, engaging different stakeholders, including the media, to the point where we feel that we’re sufficiently prepared to be able to go for a Second Reading.
“So, because we understand the process very well, I want to make sure that it’s as inclusive as possible. But I can tell you that this particular Bill has gone through a series of consultations; and so far, it’s gotten a lot of positive feedback from a lot of my colleagues, particularly, the questions around how exactly is it going to work out.
“So some have felt that you need to get 50% of the registered voters to be nominated, someone has said 10%, while some said 5%. But as we all know, it has to be at a sufficient threshold where you don’t have an all comers affair; and anybody can just decide to run.
Hon. Rotimi stated that the process of choosing an independent candidate has to be specified in the Bill to ensure only serious minded people can participate in it.