Emmanuel Ogala
Eleven years after the Senate’s electronic voting system was abandoned for inaccuracy, the Senate has reactivated the voting machines in preparation for the vote on the amendment of the 1999 Constitution.
Few minutes before the Tuesday plenary, the Senators were informed that they could not use their desk microphones like they did last week. David Mark, the Senate President informed them that before they could use their microphones, they would need an electronic swipe card to get it functional.
Shortly after, the senators were given some customised electronic swipe cards and taught how to operate the new voting system. The senators were visibly excited as they tested the viability of the cards with each senator having two spare cards.
To vote on a matter which the senate president wishes be done electronically, a senator will be required to first slot in the card and just push a yes or no button in the audio control panel on his front desk. The votes are then registered on two display boards placed where every senator can see, and also on a smaller panel on the senate president’s desk.
According to Mr. Mark, a hard copy of the votes indicating how the senators voted can also be printed out for authentication.
“The essence of reactivating the electronic voting machine is to lessen the time that will be spent on voting on each of the 39 constitutional amendment bills,” Mr. Mark said.
Late last month, when the senators voted on amendment of sections 145 and 190 of the 1999 constitution, the senate spent three hours voting on the bill because every senator stood to say their names and how they vote on the bills. This latest innovation is meant to minimize time spent on voting on crucial bills.
In less important bills or motions, the Senate use other voting methods like voice vote in which the senate president uses his judgement to decide which chorus was louder. Sometimes it is difficult for him to deliver empirically sound judgment based on the voices alone.
In some other cases, the senate divides the house in such a way that those in favour of a particular issue sit on one side of the aisle and then they are counted.
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