Electoral Bill: Senate to wait for Reps’ resumption before taking decision on Buhari’s veto -Lawan

Electoral Bill:  Senate to wait for Reps resumption before taking decision on Buhari’s veto -Lawan

Senators resumed plenary on Wednesday with another closed-door session discussing President Muhamadu Buhari’s veto on the electoral act amendment bill.

The closed-door session was held for a few minutes.

At the end of the session, Senate President Ahmad Lawan said the lawmakers discussed President Buhari’s refusal to sign the electoral act amendment bill into law.

He added that the Senators have decided to wait for their colleagues in the House of Representatives to resume before taking any action as whatever step they need to take will involve the House of Representatives.

He also said the Senate will consult with their constituents and other stakeholders during the break.

Meanwhile, members of the House of Representatives are currently on holiday and their sitting has been adjourned till January next year.

Speaker of the House, Femi Gbajabiamila in a speech to the lawmakers on Tuesday in Abuja to mark the adjournment of the House for the Christmas and New Year break said the House will address the matter in January 2022.

Gbajabiamila explained that the time was short to address the sensitive issue at hand in haste because members were set to proceed on break, and they must pass other important bills such as the 2022 Appropriation Bill and the Finance Bill before doing so.

President Buhari had withheld his assent to the bill citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges, and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political actors as reasons.

 Meanwhile President Buhari’s refusal to assent to the electoral act amendment bill drew reactions from several quarters on Tuesday.

While Governors such as Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti and Samuel Ortom of Benue State lauded the President’s decision, civil society organisations (CSOs) and some federal lawmakers were clearly disappointed.

The National Assembly had transmitted the bill to the President in November but in a letter dated December 13 and forwarded to the National Assembly, he informed them of his decision to withhold his signature.

In his letter, President Buhari cited several issues with the bill’s clause on direct primaries.

The President, according to the letter, explained that direct primaries are expensive. This, he said, will put a financial burden on the country’s resources.

He further noted that conducting direct primary elections will be tasking, explaining that since such mode of election means a large turnout of voters, the move would stretch the security agencies.

The Nigerian leader equally fears that with direct primaries, citizens’ rights will be violated while smaller political parties may face marginalisation. According to him, the move will also lead to more litigations by party members.

The civil society organisations (CSO) have  expressed displeasure at the president’s decision not to assent to the bill.

In a statement signed by its Executive Director, Clement Nwankwo, the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC) said the situation was “worrying” and “poses a serious threat to the conduct of the forthcoming 2023 Nigerian General Elections.”

However, PLAC urged the National Assembly to review the president’s demands on party primaries “in order to save the other landmark reforms contained in the Electoral Bill 2021, over which the President has expressed no worries”.

“PLAC is also calling on the National Assembly to treat the issue of passing the new Electoral Bill as a matter of national emergency and convene a special session in the shortest possible time and irrespective of their end of year break, to consider a vote for the passage of the Electoral Bill 2021,” the statement added.