The election will be conducted in the NA under Article 91 of the Constitution.

Article 91(3) says: “After the election of the speaker and the deputy speaker, the National Assembly shall to the exclusion of any other business, proceed to elect without debate one of its Muslim members to be the prime minister.”

“The prime minister shall be elected by the votes of the majority of the total membership of the National Assembly: provided that, if no member secures such majority in the first poll, a second poll shall be held between the members who secure the two highest numbers of votes in the first poll and the member who secures a majority of votes of the members present and voting shall be declared to have been elected as prime minister,” reads Article91(4) of the Constitution.

The procedure for the election, however, has been given in Chapter IV and Second Schedule of the Rules and Procedure for the Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007.

“Before voting commences, the speaker shall direct that the bells be rung for five minutes to enable members not present in the chamber to be present. Immediately after the bells stop ringing, all the entrances to the lobby shall be locked and the assembly staff posted at each entrance shall not allow any entry or exit through those entrances until the voting has concluded,” according to the Second Schedule.

The speaker shall then ask the members who wish to vote in favour of the candidates to go to the allocated lobbies through the entrance where tellers shall be posted to record the votes.

On reaching the desk of the tellers, each member shall, in turn, call out the division number allotted to them under the rules. The tellers shall then mark off the number on the division list simultaneously calling out the name of the member.

In order to ensure that his vote has been properly recorded, the member shall not move off until they have clearly heard the teller call out their name. After a member has recorded his vote, they shall not return to the chamber until bells are rung.

When the speaker finds that all the members who wished to vote have recorded their votes, he shall announce that the voting has concluded. Thereupon the secretary shall cause the division list to be collected, count the recorded votes, and present the result of the count to the speaker.

The speaker shall then direct that the bells be rung for two minutes to enable the members to return to the chamber. After the bells stop ringing, the speaker shall announce the result to the assembly.