Senate raises alarm over pending re-run polls

Senator Ben Murray Bruce (Bayelsa East) Wednesday raised the alarm over the inability of the Independent National Elec­toral Commission (INEC) to conclude the remaining rerun elections in some parts of the coun-try, saying the commission owed the upper chamber explanation on why the pending re-run elections have not been conducted.

 

He noted that the non-rep­resentation of some states in the Senate is a violation of the constitution.

 

Bruce who asked the Sen­ate to take up the issue with the INEC Chairman, said that the people of the af-fected areas have a right to be represented in the Senate.

 

Only on Tuesday, people from Imo North Senatorial District, Imo State staged a protest at the National As­sembly to call attention to the delay in conducting the sena­torial district’s re-run elec­tion.

 

Bruce who raised Point of Order said: “We have not had representation in this chamber from Rivers State, parts of Anambra, Imo, Kogi and some other states. INEC concluded elections in one week in Federal Capital Terri­tory (FCT) but in these states they had no representation here and it does not make any sense.

 

“It is a violation of the con­stitution; the people of these states have a right to have rep­resentation here. The INEC Chairman owes us an expla­nation on why these elections have not been concluded.

 

“It is a simple matter and it is the responsibility of INEC to conclude these elections so that the people of these beau­tiful states would have repre­sentation here in the Senate.

 

Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu who presid­ed over the plenary, explained that he was aware that INEC would meet yesterday to fix dates for the election.

 

He said: “Let me just say that I am aware that INEC will be meeting tomorrow (today) to fix dates for this rerun or bye-elections but it is impor­tant that you have raised it so that the nation will know that we are concerned about the non-representation of some of these states.

 

“It is clear in the constitu­tion that INEC should quick­ly conduct within 30 days, bye-elections where vacan-cies occur and so it is far past 30 days when vacancies oc­curred in some places. It is important that we urge INEC to ensure that as soon as pos­sible that these elections are conducted so that every part of the country, every state would have their full repre­sentation in the National As­sembly.