The Enugu State House of Assembly has passed the 2024 Enugu State Independent Electoral Commission, ENSIEC, amendment bill.
The bill, when signed into law by Governor Peter Mbah, would make political parties pay money to ENSIEC, to enable them participate in the local government election.
Leading a debate on the bill, the Minority Leader of the House, Mr Iloabuchi Aniagu, revealed that sections five, seven, and ten of the ENSIEC Law were amended to conform with reality.
According to him, the amended section seven makes it compulsory for political parties to pay for the Local Government elections.
He noted that this would make the state government not to solely finance LG polls, as the government has limited resources to undertake such expenses.
The minority leader further stated that the bill also sets the age of a prospective ENSIEC chairman to fall between 30 and 75 years, arguing that this would give young people the opportunity to participate in the electoral system of the state.
Also speaking, Mr Okey Mbah, representing Nkanu East Constituency, said the amendment of the bill was geared towards ensuring that the electoral body conducts credible elections.
Mbah pointed out that the ENSIEC chairman would now be mandated to resign from the office, if she or he wanted to contest for the LG election, three months before the primary election.
However, Mr Harrison Ogara, representing Igbo-Eze South Constituency, disagreed with the charging of political party money for the conduct of local council polls in the state.
Ogara noted that section seven was in contravention of the 2022 Electoral Act and as such should be scraped, adding that it is improper to ask political parties to pay money before participating in any election.
