Senator Orji Uzor Kalu has assured Nigerians that the National Assembly is close to concluding work on the harmonisation of the Electoral Act amendment bill.
Speaking on Tuesday during an interview on Sunrise Daily on Channels Television, the Abia North lawmaker disclosed that members of the Joint Harmonisation Committee are meeting again to finalise key decisions on the proposed legislation.
According to Kalu, the process is firmly on course despite earlier concerns from stakeholders and members of the public.
“Regarding the feedback from Nigerians about the Electoral Act amendment, I can tell you it is on track,” he said. “We had an emergency sitting last week and we are having another one today. We were originally supposed to resume on the 24th, possibly for budget hearings, but we have suspended that to concentrate on the Electoral Committee.”
Kalu, a former governor of Abia State and member of the Joint Harmonisation Committee, described the intensity of the ongoing deliberations. He revealed that lawmakers have been working long hours to reconcile differences between the Senate and the House of Representatives.
“I was in the office from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m.,” he said. “When it was suggested that we proceed to the Senate President’s house to harmonise our decision, I declined because I needed to rest after a long day at the National Assembly. The harmonisation process has officially started, and Nigerians will hear from us soon.”
His comments come over a week after the Senate, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, constituted a 12-member committee to interface with the House of Representatives and reconcile differences in their versions of the amendment bill.
The move followed heated debate over the method of transmitting election results. While the Senate approved electronic transmission, it removed the phrase “real-time” from Clause 60(3) of the amended Act, leaving room for manual collation in the event of technological challenges.
In contrast, the House of Representatives endorsed the real-time electronic upload of results directly from polling units to the portal of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The harmonisation committee is expected to bridge these differences and present a unified version of the bill for final passage, a development many observers say will shape the credibility and transparency of future elections in the country.
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