Senate Moves to Make Debate Compulsory for Presidential, Govoernoship Candidates
POLITICS DIGEST – A bill seeking to make presidential and governorship candidates and their running mates to participate in debates before elections mandatory has passed second reading in the Senate on Thursday.
The bill also seeks to empower the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise such debates.
Sponsor of the bill, Senator Abdulfatai Buhari (APC, Oyo North), told his colleagues while leading the debate on the bill at plenary, that such an exercise would strengthen the electoral process.
He said, “This Election Debates Bill, if passed into law, shall be used to sample the candidates’ knowledge on a wide range of issues, like a detailed analysis of how they intend to drive the economy, foreign, health and education policies among others.
“One noteworthy area of potential impact of the debate is its capacity for what political scientists call agenda setting.
“Research has shown that voters learn from debates, they are more accurately able to describe the platforms of the candidates and this will prompt them to seek out additional information about the candidates.
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“It provides one of the indicators as to how the candidate might respond under pressure as it requires them to be able to think on their feet and be able to respond to unanticipated events.”
He further said, “Anyone who desires to be governor or president should be confident enough to lay a detailed analysis of his or her plan before the electorates.
“This will offer the electorates the avenue to evaluate candidates and they will vote along ideological lines rather than on ethnic or religious allegiance as it is prevailing in our country today.”
However, some senators argued against saddling INEC with the burden of organising the debate. They noted that the body was already overwhelmed with its current workload.
Before referring the bill to the Senate committee on INEC for further legislative action, the President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, said, “INEC already has enough responsibilities, and, asking it to organise this debate, being a government body, would probably cause some difficulties especially for people in the opposition participating in such debate.
“Going the way of other countries, independent people and those who desire to be part of organising the debate, right from now, should remain non-partisan.”
