Speakership: Reps change voting pattern •Dump e-voting for open secret ballot

THE House of Representatives, on Tuesday, amended its standing order and rules relating to the election

of new Speaker and Deputy Speaker, as the legislators prepare for the commencement of the seventh National Assembly on June 7.

With the new rule, the House is now to conduct its elections by open secret ballot, as against the electronic voting system stipulated in the former Standing Orders of the House.

The House had never made use of the electronic voting machine since the 1999 date of its first inauguration, as voting during plenaries are usually conducted by voice votes. It was only during the constitutional amendment that the system was refurbished for voting by members.

The representatives had adopted voice voting in enthroning the first Speaker, Salisu Buhari; his successor, Ghali Umar Na’Abba; Patricia Olubunmi Etteh and Dimeji Bankole, an indication that the same voting pattern would be used to elect the new speaker.

At the moment, two members from the South-West, Honourables Muraina Saubana Ajibola and Mulikat Akande, are poised to slug it out for the speakership, which had been zoned to the South-West.

The representatives took the decision through a motion by the chairman, House Committee on Public Petitions, Honourable Cyril Maduabum, entitled: “Amendment of the Standing of the House of Representatives Order II, Rule 3, (f) (i) and (ii)” which was unanimously adopted by members at the plenary session.

Honourable Maduabum, in his motion, argued, that “The Standing Orders of the House of Representatives provide that methods of voting when two or more members-elect are nominated and seconded as Speaker or Deputy Speaker, shall be by electronic voting,” saying, no other method of voting is provided for under the rules of the House.

He noted that the Electronic Voting Cards required for voting in the House of Representatives might not be ready for use for the new members-elect before voting for presiding officers of the House at the inauguration of the new session.

According to him, “the House of Representatives should show example of transparency in the democratic election of its leaders.”

The new amendment to Order II, Rule 3, (f) (i) and (ii) read, “when two or more of the members-elect are nominated and seconded as speaker, the election shall be conducted as follows”(i) by open secret ballot; (ii) voting by open secret ballot shall be conducted by the clerks-at-the-table using the list of the members-elect of the House, who shall each be given a ballot paper to cast his vote, with the proposer and the seconded as tellers.”