Yiaga Seeks Review of Electoral Laws in Local Government Elections.

Gilbert Ekugbe

Yiaga Africa has called for the urgent need to review electoral laws for improved Local Government elections across the federation.

The Director of Programmes, Yiaga Africa, Cynthia Mbamalu, at an advocacy roundtable on legislative reform for improved Local Government elections in Lagos, said electoral laws should be amended in line with the electoral act 2022 which currently provides in section 150 that local government elections should be conducted in line with the provisions of the electoral act that regulates area Council elections.

In her words, “They do not need to change all of it, but amend some sections. We want to see issues around the timeline of the elections to guarantee that every four years there is a local government election in Lagos State and every other State, the second is on tenure of office and the new electoral law proposes four years for local government and it also creates a sense of autonomy for them. The proposal is also to amend the Lagos State electoral law to have a four year tenure local government chairperson and the council.”

“The first thing is to join the call of a lot of Nigerians asking for local government autonomy to be part of this current amendment, the tenth assembly is in the process of amending the constitution. The ninth assembly passed it, but it failed at the State level, but we are hoping that this time around, the State assemblies would vote in support of the provision to amend the constitution for local government autonomy,” she averred.

She also pointed out the need to fund State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs), lamenting that funding still remains one of the greatest challenges hindering local government elections.

“There is an urgent need to fund SIECs for administrative and fiscal autonomy for the SIECs to be able to function and conduct elections as at when due. We believe that the review of this law, we would strengthen the independence of SIECs and also provide some clarity around elections should be conducted and most importantly, to build citizens trust in the process of Local Government elections,”she urged.
Also speaking, the Founding Director, Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre (WARDC), Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, said States have been wielding undue influence on the local government and undermining its growth, pointing out that Local government are dissolved by the state yet the court has declared such steps as null and void.

Afolabi said: “The funding of the Local Government comes through the State Government by virtue of the constitution, it makes it difficult for the Local Government to be entirely independent. So, the State is then bestowed with the responsibility to support the conduct of the local government election and what we see is mismanagement of the election to their own advantage.”

“As election observers and experts, this has been the major challenge especially in the last few years of our democratic practice, where local government elections are often swept by one party that is in control of the state, making the election worthless and discouraging peoples participation. This reality makes the Local Government election processes partial, not free,” the Founding Director bemoaned.