Abbas decries increased court interventions in electoral disputes, to review electoral laws

Speaker of House of Representatives, RT. Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, has decried the spate of court-decided electoral disputes and resultantly revealed reviewing the Electoral Act 2022.

Abass stated this in his speech to the lawmakers who resumed legislative business on Tuesday.

He said: “Of immediate concern to us are electoral reforms to address grey areas in the 2022 Electoral Act.

“The purpose is to ensure that future elections are free, fair, and credible elections that truly reflect the people’s will.”

Abass added that “75% of gubernatorial elections conducted by INEC in 2023 ended up in the Supreme Court.

“A significantly higher percentage of gubernatorial, State, and National Assembly elections was litigated to the appellate level.”

He said the development was worrisome, particularly “the varying and conflicting judicial pronouncements which can disrupt our democratic process.”

“ For this reason, the House will constitute a special technical committee with Members drawn from the Committee on Electoral Matters, experts, academics and other stakeholders.”

He also said that the proposed committee will hold “a public hearing to aggregate concrete suggestions for amendment.”