But the duration of cases at election petition tribunals was pegged at 180 days.
The pegging of the duration of appeals was one of the 10 clauses of the Second Alteration Bill to the 1999 Constitution passed by the upper chamber of the National Assembly during its sitting in Abuja.
In the House of Representatives, the 276 members at Wednesday’s plenary also unanimously voted to amend the constitution (2nd Alteration).
Sections 5, 10, 11, and 17 of the constitution were altered in the House by the lawmakers during the voting that witnessed a mild drama.
Another aspect of the bill okayed by the Senate is the extension of appeals on governorship election petitions from the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court.
In the First Alteration to the Constitution, the Court of Appeal was listed as the last court for governorship election petitions.
The Second Alteration to the constitution also provides for the conduct of general elections not earlier than 150 and not later than 30 days to the expiration of the tenure of the holder of an elective office.
Presenting the bill before members voted on each of the clauses, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, said the objective of the piece of legislation was to provide new timelines for the conduct of elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
He said the amendment also reinstated the governorship election tribunal, which the first alteration abrogated, and extended appeals arising from the exercise (elections) to the Supreme Court.
According to him, Section 29 of the First Alteration Act or Section 285 of the Constitution was amended, paving the way for appeals on election cases to be dispensed with within 60 days.
The amendment states, “An appeal from a decision of an election tribunal or Court of Appeal in an election matter shall be heard and disposed of within 60 days from the date of the delivery of judgment of the tribunal.”
Also, Section 233, sub-section 2e (iv) was amended to pave the way for the Supreme Court to receive appeals on petitions arising from governorship elections.
The section states, “An appeal shall lie from decisions of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court as of right in the following cases: decisions on any question, whether any person has been validly elected to the office of governor or deputy governor under this constitution.”
In altering Sections 76, 116, 132, and 178, the bill provided for the conduct of the general elections “on the date not earlier than 150 and not later than 30 days to the expiration of the tenure of the holder of an elective office.”
The bill retained the provisions requiring election petitions to be dispensed of within 180 days from the time of filing a petition.
On the restoration of the Governorship Election Tribunal, the document provided a new Section 246 of the constitution and deleted the old one, to make provisions that election petitions arising from governorship elections would begin from the tribunal.
The senators, numbering about 81, voted overwhelmingly for the passage, having achieved over two-thirds (73) required to okay each section of the bill.
The voting, which was conducted electronically, suffered several hitches as some senators initially could not vote.
A number of them changed their seats before their voting cards could read. Senator John Shagaya had his votes taken manually.
Sub-section 1(c) states, “An appeal to the Court of Appeal shall lie as of right from decisions of the governorship election tribunal…”
The President of the Senate, David Mark, while commenting on the passage of bills, advised losers at elections to always learn to accept defeat.
“They should always accept that they lost in a gallant fight, and that is the only way we can have fewer election petitions going to the tribunals,” he said.
Also in Abuja on Monday, the House of Representatives altered Sections 5, 10, 11, and 17 of the constitution. By this development, the House has approved INEC’s request to extend the dates of the 2011 elections to April from January.
The amendment gave INEC the opportunity to conduct the elections not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before the May 29 handover date.
Previously, the 1999 Constitution (1st Alteration), gave a time frame of 150 days to 120 days, which would have required INEC to conduct the poll in January.
Following the commission’s complaint that it was pressed for time, it approached the National Assembly for legal backing by seeking for the extension of the dates of the poll.
However, voting on the alteration did not scale through at the House without some drama, as what was expected to be a simple decision, dragged till 5.23pm.
The House was billed to sit at 2pm, as it is the tradition on Wednesdays, but this was delayed till about 3pm.
Findings indicated that there were ‘grey issues’ agitating the minds of some lawmakers.
The Speaker, Mr. Dimeji Bankole, shortly after proceedings started, called for an executive session, which lasted for over 45 minutes.
It was learnt that some lawmakers used the session to seek clarification on the level of implementation of the 2010 budget, particularly the non-release of capital votes for projects by the Ministry of Finance.
On resumption from the executive session, voting was delayed further because the electronic voting system had failed.
After technicians spent several minutes trying to reactivate it without success, Bankole called for the votes to be taken manually.
With 276 members sitting, each of the clauses for alteration was called and a voice vote was taken. There was no dissenting voice.
The bill for the alteration of the constitution was read for the third time and passed immediately.
Only 240 of the 360 members were required to pass the amendment; 240 being two-thirds of 360 as provided by the constitution.
The document, after concurrence by the Senate, will now be forwarded to the 36 state houses of assembly for endorsement.
Two-thirds (24) of the assemblies must approve the amendment in line with Section 9 of the constitution.
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