The national assembly is set to finalise the harmonisation of the amended electoral act, Senator Orji Kalu has disclosed.
Kalu, who represents Abia North, spoke on Tuesday during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, revealing that the joint committee would meet again to round off work on the bill.
According to Kalu, the amendment process remains on course despite public concerns. He explained that lawmakers held an emergency sitting last week and suspended planned budget hearings to focus on the electoral reforms.
The Abia North lawmaker, who is a member of the Joint Harmonisation Committee, stated that deliberations had already commenced formally. He added that discussions lasted several hours at the National Assembly complex as members worked to align positions between both chambers.
His comments follow the Senate’s recent appointment of a 12-member committee to interface with the House of Representatives on the disputed clauses of the bill. Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced the panel during an emergency plenary session.
At the heart of the controversy is the mode of transmitting election results. While the Senate approved electronic transmission, it removed the phrase “real-time” from Clause 60(3) of the amended Act, thereby allowing manual collation as a backup where technological challenges arise.
In contrast, the House of Representatives retained the “real-time” electronic upload of results directly from polling units to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal.
The harmonisation process is expected to reconcile these differences before the final version of the Electoral Act amendment is transmitted for assent.
