THE controversial Electoral Act Amendment Bill has been transmitted to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent, it was learnt yesterday.

This is coming ahead of the 2019 general elections.

The amendments were passed by the two chambers last month after Buhari refused assent to the one earlier passed.

Findings showed that the transmission of the clean copy of the Bill was done on Monday, June 25.

It was also gathered that the controversial areas of the Bill, including reordering of the sequence of elections, were cleaned out of the Bill to enable the President to sign it.

A competent source said the Bill was forwarded to the President for assent to beat the six months’ deadline required to conclude the amendment of the Electoral Act before the election.

If signed into law by Buhari, the Bill will be known as Electoral Act 2018 (as amended.)

The provisions of the Bill will serve as guidelines for the conduct of the 2019 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

A major provision of the Bill is the recognition of the card reader for elections.

The President had three months ago rejected the earlier Bill forwarded to him for assent.

The President had in vetoing the Bill sent to him in February, this year, cited three reasons for his refusal to endorse the Bill.

The new sequence of elections included in the Bill in section 25(1) which listed National Assembly election first, followed by governorship and House of Assembly Election while Presidential Election was placed last in order of elections did not go down well with the President.

Buhari, in his rejection, said the inserted section in the Electoral Act violated the provisions of Section 72 of the 1999 Constitution, which empowers the INEC to fix dates of elections and see to its conduct in all ramifications.

Chairman, Senate Committee on INEC Senator Suleiman Nazif (Bauchi North), who presented the report of his committee on the Bill, told his colleagues that the Bill was re-introduced following Buhari’s decision to withhold assent due to the following observations:


“That the amendment to the sequence of the elections in Section 25 of the principal Act may infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organise, undertake and supervise all elections in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule of the Constitution;

“That the amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete 2 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.

“That the amendment to Section 152 (3)- (5) of the Principal Act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over local government elections.”

In line with the observations, Nazif explained that his committee resolved to:

delete Sections 25 and 152 (3)-(5) in the proposed Bill based on the President’s observations; retain Section 138 (c) and (d) as contained in the Principal Act; further amend Section 49 by including a new subsection (3), which provides that ” Where a Smart Card Reader deployed for accreditation of voters fails to function in any unit and a new card reader is not deployed, the election in that unit shall be cancelled and another election shall be scheduled within 24 hours”; and amend Section 140 to include a new subsection (c), which states that “Where the election is postponed due to omission of a political party’s name or logo, the commission’s officer responsible for such printing of party names or logos commits an offence and is liable to a fine of Two Million Naira (N2,000,000) or imprisonment for two years or both”.

Nazif added that although INEC had submitted its observations for consideration, the committee unanimously agreed to deliberate on the commission’s remarks in any subsequent amendment as the Senate and the House had already harmonised positions on the Bill.

http://thenationonlineng.net/buhari-gets-electoral-act-amendment-bill-for-assent/

GOOD job MY PRESIDENT

Another drama to keep us busy for another week is here

Amendments of bills to your selfish favours can never make you a good man and responsible president. The greatest miracle of all time shall be victorious 2019 general election for buhari. You don't care about genocide going on in plateau, Taraba ,benue and other States being terrorised by the Fulani herdsmen. Atrocities committed by these beasts shall hunt you to and in grave. Your prime interest is 2019 election and reelection to Aso rock.

Ok

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Buhari till 2023.