ABUJA – Disturbing silence now pervades the serene atmosphere of the National Assembly over possible voting method to be adopted the election of Senate President for the 8th Senate of the Federal Republic and the Speaker for the House of Representatives.
This followed the keeping to chest, by the Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Salisu Maikasuwa, the method amidst agitation for and against open voting to elect the leadership of the two chambers.
Since inception of the current democratic dispensation, in 1999, Senate has adopted open voting, in which the Senators-elect were called in alphabetic order to which the individual would rise and announce his choice.
Conversely, in the House of Reps, the elected member would be given a ballot to tick his or her choice candidate for the Speaker and dropped in the box.
However, following disagreement in the All Progressive Congress (APC) over recent choice of consensus candidates, decanting voices among the legislators-elect have resorted challenge the mock election on the floor of the both chambers of the NASS.
As a way of testing their popularity, they are routing for secret balloting to enable them upturn the decisions of the party.
Senate ‘s order 3(e) which spells the procedure of election of Senate President states: “when only two senators-elect are nominated and seconded as President of the Senate, the election shall be conducted as follows: (i) the senate shall divide with the proposers and seconders as Tellers.
“Proposers and Seconders, according to the senate standing rules on nomination of candidates “shall propose another Senator-elect to the Senate to be President of the Senate.”
Also, section 3(ii) stipulates that voting shall be conducted by the clerks-at-the-Table using the Division list of the senate with the Tellers in attendance. The Clerk of the senate shall submit the result of the division to the Clerk of the National Assembly”, a procedure that did not state in categorical term, whether such an election should be conducted through open or secret balloting.
Commenting on today’s election for a new Senate President, Senator Andy Uba (PDP, Anambra South) said: “All I know is that tomorrow we will exercise our constitutional rights by voting whoever we think that is best for that job as the Senate President.”
According to the lawmaker who was the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC in the seventh senate, “There is no parley between APC and PDP. All I am saying is that tomorrow by the grace of God, the Assembly will decide who will run that place as Senate President.
On whether the Peoples Democratic Party will present a candidate, Senator Uba added, “You cannot say that the PDP is planning to field a candidate, we do not know what will happen until we get to the floor of the senate because it depends on what is happening on the floor of the Senate that the PDP will react.”
“Imposition has never worked, we have our constitutional rights to vote whoever we want on the floor of the Senate and tomorrow, by the grace of God we are going to produce our own Senate President through an election.”
On his part, Senator Gbenga Ashafa (APC, Lagos East) said that “the mock election for a consensus candidate at the weekend may not have yielded much result but that the APC will be relentless in picking a unanimous consensus candidate.
The lawmaker who described the APC mock election at the weekend as “free and fair”, said that the outcome shows that the winner, Senator Ahmed Lawan, enjoyed more support with 32 votes out of 58 senators-elect than his contender Senator Bukola Saraki.
He added: “Let us take it away from the APC, let us look at what we have been able to do to come out with one true consensus candidate to compete with should there be any case for a contender from the other party.
“On the floor of the Senate, I am hoping that between now and tomorrow morning, the leaders in our party would have called everybody together including those who are aggrieved.”
