RESIDENT Umaru Yar’Adua is set to put a stop to the act of cross-carpeting by politicians from one political party to the other, and has sent a bill to that effect to the National Assembly.
The President has equally proposed a bill to whittle down the power of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and that of its chairman, among others.
According to the proposed bill seeking to ban politicians from defecting from their political parties to another, all the aspects of the 1999 Constitution which offer an escape route for such categories of politicians have been removed.
The President has proposed amendment to this effect in Section 68 of the existing constitution just to discourage political office holders, including the president, state governors, members of the National Assembly and members of the state Houses of Assembly from dumping the parties that elected them into power in search of better opportunities in new political parties.
By the proposed amendment which is to reflect in sections 68, 109 and 135 of the constitution, any political office holder who joins a new political party after dumping his initial party would immediately lose his office.
For instance, section 68 (g) of the 1999 Constitution which has now been removed from the constitution by the proposed amendment has, hitherto been allowing defectors in the National Assembly to remain in office even as members of new political parties by exploiting the provisos attached to the section.
Source: Nigeria Tribune
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