Lawmakers in the Senate and the House of Representatives have begun the voting process on the fifth alteration of the 1999 constitution.
Senate President, Ahmad Lawan said the Senate would adopt an electronic mode of voting as a departure from the usual voice-vote adopted in the past.
According to him, members’ automated cards would serve as voting cards, adding that the voting instruments had been tested and ready for the exercise.
The Senate president Lawan said 68 bills harmonised by both chambers of the National Assembly would be considered for voting.
Chairman of the National Assembly Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution and Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo – Agege is currently presenting a report on the amendment bill before voting will commence.
“For today’s exercise, we will use electronic voting. We have tested the system and it is working,” the senate president said.
“Omo-Agege will present the report. We will listen to his presentation and we can take comments and we will thereafter go into the voting process.
“I will announce the bill then we will take it as it is presented in the report and senators will each register with our cards.
”It will take us 30 seconds to vote. You will press the button for registration. Then there is registration, ‘Yes, no and abstain’. Voting will take another 30 seconds.
“If you don’t vote within 30 seconds, you have lost your vote. If a bill passes in the senate and the house, such bill would have passed in the national assembly and will be sent to states.
“If a bill passes in the senate but fails to pass in the house, that bill is dead – and vice versa,” Lawan explained earlier.
