January 31, (THEWILL) – The National Assembly has transmitted the re-amended Electoral Act Amendment Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on NASS Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.
He explained that the transmission of the bill was in line with the provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.
Omoworare stated that the Clerk to the National Assembly, Olatunde Ojo, transmitted the authenticated copies of the bill to the President on Monday.
The statement read, “The Clerk to the National Assembly, Mr Olatunde Amos Ojo, has transmitted the authenticated copies of the Electoral Bill 2022 to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, on 31st January 2022.
“This was done in accordance with the provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.
“Mr President had withheld assent to the Electoral Bill 2021 transmitted to him on 19th November 2021. The electoral bill was thereafter reworked by the National Assembly and both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the same on 25th January 2022.”
THEWILL reports that the two Chambers of the National Assembly had on Tuesday last week amended the electoral bill for the second time by concurring on consensus candidacy and setting fresh conditions for political parties in the nomination of candidates for elections.
The President had last year vetoed the electoral bill and sent it back to the National Assembly over the restriction of political parties to a mandatory direct primary.
The House had amended Clause Section 87 of the Electoral Act 2010, which is Clause 84 of the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, by inserting the indirect primary option.
The Senate, however, not only added indirect primary but also consensus adoption of candidates for elections by a political party.
While the House re-amended the bill to include the direct and indirect primary options, the Senate re-adjusted to include the direct, indirect, and consensus modes of selecting political parties’ candidates.
On Tuesday last week, lawmakers in the two chambers passed the harmonised version of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill – the final agreed version of the amendment to Clause 84 of the bill.
This bill included the direct, indirect, and consensus primary modes of nominating candidates by political parties for elections.
