{"id":80539,"date":"2025-12-19T06:14:47","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T06:14:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=80539"},"modified":"2025-12-19T06:14:47","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T06:14:47","slug":"reps-approve-two-year-jail-term-%e2%82%a65m-fine-for-vote-trading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/12\/19\/reps-approve-two-year-jail-term-%e2%82%a65m-fine-for-vote-trading\/","title":{"rendered":"Reps Approve Two-Year Jail Term, \u20a65m Fine for Vote Trading"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Onyeanya Immaculata<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The House of Representatives has approved amendments to the Electoral Act prescribing stiffer penalties for vote buying and selling, including a minimum of two years\u2019 imprisonment or a \u20a65 million fine, or both, alongside a 10-year ban from contesting elections.<\/p>\n<p>The decision was taken during clause-by-clause consideration of the report of the House Committee on Electoral Matters at the Committee of the Whole, presided over by Deputy Speaker Benjamin Kalu.<\/p>\n<p>Under the amended Clause 22(a and c), individuals convicted of vote trading or dealing in voter cards will face tougher sanctions than those contained in the current law, which provides for fines of up to \u20a6500,000 or a maximum of two years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers also approved an amendment to Section 60(3), making it mandatory for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to electronically transmit polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IREV) in real time, alongside physical collation of results.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, a new Section 60(6) introduces penalties for presiding officers who deliberately violate procedures for counting, announcing, or transmitting results.<\/p>\n<p>Such offenders now risk a fine of at least \u20a6500,000 or a minimum of six months\u2019 imprisonment, or both.<\/p>\n<p>The House further approved provisions requiring the release of election funds to INEC at least one year before a general election to enhance planning and efficiency.<\/p>\n<p>Penalties for multiple voter registration were also increased, with offenders facing a minimum fine of \u20a6100,000 or at least one year\u2019s imprisonment, or both.<\/p>\n<p>Other amendments extend the deadline for political parties to submit candidates\u2019 lists to INEC from 180 to 210 days before an election and permit the use of electronically generated voter identification, including downloadable voter cards with QR codes or other INEC-approved identification methods.<\/p>\n<p>Consideration of the remaining clauses of the Electoral Act amendment bill is ongoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Onyeanya Immaculata The House of Representatives has approved amendments to the Electoral Act prescribing stiffer penalties for vote buying and selling, including a minimum of two years\u2019 imprisonment or a \u20a65 million fine, or both, alongside a 10-year ban from contesting elections. The decision was taken during clause-by-clause consideration of the report of the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":80540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80541,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80539\/revisions\/80541"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}