The Senate has rejected a bill seeking to replace a member of the Legislature in the event of resignation,
death or vacancy by simply nominating a replacement as against conducting a fresh general election to
fill the vacancy.

The bill, a proposed amendment to the Electoral Act, 2022, was sponsored by a senator representing
Kogi-West Senatorial District of Kogi, Karimi Sunday. The long title of the bill reads, “A Bill for an Act to amend the Electoral Act, 2022 to allow political parties to nominate and replace validly elected candidates in the event of resignation, death or vacancy (of seats) of serving members in National Assembly and State Houses of Assembly and for connected matters therewith, 2023.”

The bill’s key provision is that the political party on whose platform the candidate contested election
should simply nominate a replacement if vacancy occurs, as against conducting a fresh general election
to fill the vacancy. Leading the debate on the general principles of the bill, Sen. Sunday, argued that the votes that produced the candidate belonged to the political party, not the candidate; hence the same party could nominate the replacement.

However, he added that the political party could organize a primary election to pick the replacement
from the persons who originally participated in its primary for the initial general election. Sen. Sunday stated that the idea was to save the huge costs that would have been incurred by the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to conduct a fresh election to fill the vacancy.

The President of the Senate, Sen. Godswill Akpabio, made the first observation by advising the chamber
to proceed with caution by ensuring that the bill was not in conflict with other provisions of both the
Electoral Act and the 1999 Constitution. Akpabio further observed that in some of the jurisdictions Sen. Sunday referenced in the bill, members of their legislatures were nominated to office and not by election.
He explained that in such jurisdictions, it might not be a misnomer for a vacancy to be filled by
nomination since it was the tradition there.

Although Sen. Sunday was advised to withdraw the bill, he refused to do so, insisting that it should be
forwarded to the ad-hoc committee on constitution alteration. When Sen. Akpabio put the bill to a voice vote, senators responded by rejecting it overwhelmingly.