Electoral act amendment: Buhari breaks silence on why he declined assent to bill for 3rd time

President Muhammadu Buhari after the third time in a row declining assent to the Electoral act amendment bill has cited reasons that signing it now will disrupt the 2019 General Elections.

He stated this in separate letters to Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and Speaker Yakubu Dogara, that with only few months to the 2019 General Elections, if a new electoral law comes into being, there would be a lot of uncertainty.

The President had twice rejected the amendment made to the 2010 Electoral Act. The first was on March 13 and the second time on September 3, and requested that certain things be done on the proposal.

In the letters dated December 6, 2018, he said, “Any real or apparent change to the rules this close to election may provide an opportunity for disruption and confusion in respect to which law governs the electoral process. This leads me to believe that it is in the best interest of the country and our democracy for the National Assembly to specifically state in the Bill, that the Electoral Act will come into effect and be applicable to elections commencing after the 2019 General Elections.

The President also made observations on some technicalities contained in the bill, saying Section 5 of the bill, which seeks to amend Section 18 of the principal Act should indicate the subsection to which the substitution of the figure “30” or the figure ”60” is to be effected.

“Section 11 of the bill, amending Section 36, should indicate the subsection in which the proviso is to be introduced.

“Section 24 of the bill, which amends Section 85 (1) should be redrafted in full as the introduction of the “electing” to the sentence may be interpreted to mean the political parties may give 21 days’ notice of the intention to merge, as opposed to the 90 days provided in Section 87 (2) of the Electoral Act, which provides the provision for merger of political parties.

“The definition of the term ‘Ward Collection Officer’ should be revised to reflect a more descriptive definition than the capitalised and undefined term “Registration Area Collation Officer.” he added.