The Pacesetter Frontier Magazine

Tag: Electoral Amendment

  • Electoral Bill: National Assembly reverses self one month after Buhari rejected the 2021 Electoral Amendment Bill

    One month after President Muhammadu Buhari rejected the 2021 Electoral Amendment Bill, over the removal of indirect primaries, the Senate, yesterday, passed an amended version with the inclusion of direct, indirect and consensus mode of electing candidates by political parties for elective positions in the 2023 general elections..

    This came as the House of Representatives reintroduced the Bill and approved direct and indirect primaries.

    Citing the humongous cost of conducting direct primary by the various political parties and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), President Buhari, in December, 2021, vetoed the Amendment Bill.

    Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, had at the plenary, on Tuesday, said the House would revisit the rejected Bill and do the needful because of its importance to the 2023 general elections.Consequently, the Bill was reintroduced at the Plenary, yesterday.

    Shortly after the bill was passed afresh, he explained that apart from Section 84(2), which deals with mode of primaries, nothing else was changed in the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which was first passed in November 2021.

    Earlier, the House had adopted a motion by the chairman of Committee on Rules and Business, Abubakar Fulata, for the recommittal of the bill to Committee of the Whole, to enable the parliament tinker with the proposed legislation, in line with the observation raised by President Buhari.

    However, immediately the bill was passed, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) member from Rivers State, Awaji-Inombek Abiante, raised an observation that clause 4(A), which stipulates that political parties would hold special convention across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory(FCT) where delegates would vote for their preferred president was still retained in the bill. He said he was suspicious that the clause was intended to scuttle the signing of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill by President Buhari. Consequently, he demanded that all the clauses should be taken one after the day to enable members make input.

    Nevertheless, the House spokesman, Benjamin Kalu, at a press briefing, explained that the House rules does not permit it to dabble into other parts of the bill other than parts pointed out by the president.

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com

  • Buhari Gives reasons for withholding assent to Electoral Amendment Bill

    Buhari Gives reasons for withholding assent to Electoral Amendment Bill

     

    The Presidency, yesterday, gave reasons President Muhammadu Buhari withheld assent from Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

     

    Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in a statement, said the Presidency took the decision in the best interest of Nigerians.

     

    “The president’s decision to withhold assent from the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021 has come under scrutiny from media and political circles. This is quite correct because it is a decision that will impact all Nigerians. The President’s Office has decided, therefore, to issue an official statement to make its position clear. Nigeria’s strength, as a nation and its status as one of the wealthiest economies in Africa with one of its highest standards of living, owes above all to its proud democratic processes, which are enshrined in the Electoral Act of 2010.

     

    “It is this act which the new bill seeks to amend. These amendments have been presented as a means to enhance and build upon our democratic processes. After careful review, the President’s Office has found that the opposite is true. Rather, the proposed amendments entail significant legal, financial, economic and security consequences for all Nigerians, principal among which would be a severe spike in the cost of holding primary elections by parties – integral to democracies the world over. And who would shoulder these costs? The Nigerian taxpayer of course. And who would benefit? Only the richest of political parties.

     

    “At a time when the nation is seeking to extricate itself from the economic mire of the worst global health crisis in living memory, whatever other merits the new bill may have, now is not the time for such frivolous spending of public money. Inevitably, the usual voices are making themselves heard, with cynical claims of election rigging and so on. This is nothing new. We heard their self-serving cries of fraud in 2015, when we saw the first peaceful transfer of power in independent Nigeria’s history. Then again in 2019, when President Buhari was re-elected with a lead of over three million. We will hear them again in 2023.

     

    “Until then, the president will do whatever he can to protect this county’s democracy, and that includes withholding assent from this bill. It is worth noting that, as one of Nigeria’s largest political parties, All Progressives Congress (APC) is one of those that stand to benefit from a bill that favours wealthier parties. But it is not the job of this government to protect the APC. It is the job of this government to protect Nigeria, her people and her democracy.

     

    “To those that would rather that limited public funds be spent on politicking during this time of global crisis, we say: cease these cynical games. Tell the Nigerian people openly what you want. Put your – or rather their – money where your mouth is.”

     

     

     

     

    Source: www.sunnewsonline.com