After rejection by Buhari, senate reintroduces election reordering bill

The senate has reintroduced the bill to amend the electoral act.

It passed first reading after the short title of the bill was read by the clerk of the senate on Tuesday.

The development comes after the reintroduction of the bill by the house of representatives, last week.

On March 13, President Muhammadu Buhari rejected the bill.

The president had said amending section 25 of the electoral act would infringe on the “constitutionally guaranteed discretion” of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organise, undertake and supervise elections.

“Pursuant to section 58(4) of the constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I hereby convey to the senate, my decision, on 3rd March 2018, to decline presidential assent to the electoral amendment bill 2018 recently passed by the national assembly,” Buhari had said in a letter to the national assembly.

“Some of my reasons include the following -the amendment to the sequence of elections in Section 25 of the principal act, may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to organize, undertake and supervise elections provided in Section 15(A) of the third statue to the constitution.

“The amendments to section 138 of the principal act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates, unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process;

“The amendment to section 152 subsection 325 of the principal act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the national assembly to legislate over local government elections.”

Before the president rejected the bill, some senators alleged that it was targeted at him.

They argued that the inclusion of section 25 in the electoral act was done in a “rush” and “it is valid.”

“This is very partisan. You could see from the body language, from the utterances that it is a pre-determined thing by a political party that is threatened by the APC government,” Abdullahi Adamu, senator representing Nasarawa west, said.

“Whatever incumbency give to anyone we are denying that one. We are not part of this endorsement.”