‘Mid-term election panacea for high turnover of lawmakers’

irector General of the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) Dr Ladi Hamalai has said that holding midterm elections for legislators would help retain most of the lawmakers against what currently obtains.

Speaking on the sidelines during the ongoing induction course for incoming lawmakers in Abuja, Hamalai said in order to enhance the work of the legislature, it was imperative to have more returning lawmakers after every election.

She said: “In the US for example, every two years they elect half of the congress in what is called, mid-term election. In such an election, almost 90 per cent of the legislators are returned. In this arrangement, not all the legislators go for re-election at the same time. That is why you have lawmakers spending decades in the Legislature with all the legislative experiences.

“So, this has to be really debated on. Whether to do a constitution amendment to ensure that at least, 50 to 70 per cent of legislators are retained at every election, or better still we can adopt the US method which ensure not all of them are made to go for election at the same time, which requires an amendment to the constitution,” she said.

She urged political parties to give priority to competence rather than zoning on the issue of presiding officers of the National Assembly.