Electoral Act Amendment Bill: PMB’s letter declining assent read at NASS
The National Assembly has on Tuesday read President Muhammadu Buhari’s letter in which he declined assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The letter was read at both the Senate and House of Representatives plenary session and before the letter was read, the Senate went into a closed-door session to discuss the content of the document.
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President Buhari had declined to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill over the direct primaries clause.
In a letter sent to the National Assembly, the President cited several irregularities in the bill.
Buhari believes direct primaries are expensive. He further noted that conducting free and fair direct primary elections will be tasking, taking into consideration the country’s security challenges.
The Nigerian leader equally fears that with direct primaries, citizens’ rights will be violated while smaller political parties may face marginalisation.
The presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, had argued that whatever his principal decides to do concerning the Electoral Act Amendment Bill will not affect his public perception.
He told Channels Television on Monday that his principal owes no obligation to make his decision public.
“The constitution says the president must sign within 30 days, the constitution did not say that there should be the disclosure of that decision within 30 days to the public when the disclosure to the National Assembly has been made,” he explained.
Before then, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, unlike several critics, said Buhari did not assent to the bill due to his fears over the electronic transmission of results clause.
According to him, the president does not have a reason for not signing the bill.
“The ruling party in their conspiracy is trying to deceive Nigerians that the mere inclusion of the direct primaries in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is the problem why the President does not want to sign or why he has refused to sign.
“The major issue is the transmission, the electronic transmission of results,” Wike told Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.
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