INEC Should Consider Underage Married Girls As Voters – National Assembly

The National Assembly Joint Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission Matters has come out to urge INEC to consider any married girl that is not up to 18 as eligible to vote.

The committee recently revealed this while proposing a review of the provision in the Electoral Act on Wednesday, December 16, 2020.

According to the Technical Committee on Electoral Reform by the Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya, the proposal was a unanimous decision of the joint committee of the National Assembly, and if a lady who is not up to 18 years is married, she should be considered to be mature enough and be eligible to vote.

Gaya’s counterpart in the House of Representatives, Aisha Dukku added that the proposal is already in the Electoral Act amendments submitted in the last Assembly; so it cannot be thrown away just like that.

Gaya said, “The joint committee has proposed a review of the section of the Electoral Act that pegged the eligibility age of voters at 18 years.

“The joint committee has proposed that if a lady who is not up to 18 years is married, she should be considered to be mature enough and be eligible to vote.”

Aisha Dukku’s words, “It was one of the submissions on the day of the public hearing in the last Assembly that a married lady or a girl who is not up to 18 years should be considered as an eligible voter.

“It is already in the Electoral Act amendments submitted in the last Assembly; so it cannot be thrown away just like that.”