The
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that it invoke
the relevant section of the amended 1999 constitution if any lawmaker leaves
his/her party on that platform the leader was voted in, before the expiration
of the tenure.
The
Deputy Director, Public Affairs of INEC, Nick Dazang, yesterday aforementioned
that the constitution is obvious on the position the commission can absorb such
state of affairs.
Dazang
stated that the rule is restricted on what happens if a leader leaves from one
party to a different one.
Section
109 (g) of the amended 1999 Constitution states that, a member of the
legislative assembly shall vacate his seat within the House if “being an
individual/person whose election to the House was sponsored by a party, he
becomes a member of another political party before the expiration of the period/amount
of that House was elected.”
The
section additionally offers a provision, that “Provided that his membership of
the latter political party is not as a result of a division in the political
party of which he was previously a member or of a merger of two or more
political parties or factions by one of which he was previously sponsored.”
Last year, the Supreme Court, reportedly
dominate that a member of House of Representatives representing Akure
North/South Federal body of Ondo State ought to vacate his seat for defecting
from political party (LP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).