EXCLUSIVE: INEC replies Presidency, endorses Electoral Bill


The presidency had earlier written to INEC to seek its view on the Electoral Bill.

ByTaiwo-Hassan Adebayo December 8, 2021


The Independent National Electoral Commission has offered a “general” endorsement of the Electoral Bill but made an apparent suggestion to President Muhammadu Buhari to consult with political parties and security agencies over the controversial direct primaries provision, PREMIUM TIMES understands.

The National Assembly had on November 19 transmitted the bill to President Muhammadu Buhari, who, statutorily, has 30 days to assent to or veto the proposed law. The bill, which repeals the extant Electoral Act 2010 as altered, seeks to make direct primaries the only means for political parties to select their candidates for elections and legalise electronic transmission of results, among other provisions.

The Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, had on November 29 written INEC, seeking its “detailed and considered view by December 3 to inform” the decision of Mr Buhari on the bill, presidency sources confided in PREMIUM TIMES.

Especially regarding the direct primaries provision, which outlaws the delegate or indirect system, the bill has caused a split in the ruling party, APC. While the APC-controlled National Assembly leadership and Bola Tinubu camp prefer direct primaries, there is a tendency, including a number of governors, that want the delegate system to remain in the law book.

In the extant Electoral Act 2010, as altered, direct primaries, delegate system, and consensus are allowed as processes of selecting candidates for elections by political parties.

“It is the considered view of the Commission that, generally, the Bill contains substantial provisions that could lay a strong foundation for the improvements of the electoral process,” INEC said in a December 3 letter to the presidency, exclusively obtained by PREMIUM TIMES.

“Among others, provisions on early submission of candidates for election, electronic transmission of results, and the power of the Commission to review declarations made under duress or are inconsistent with the law will contribute immensely to better management of elections, increased public confidence in the electoral process and overall democratic consolidation in our country.”

However, the INEC letter signed by chairman Mahmood Yakubu appeared to suggest to the president to make wider consultations, making an apparent reference to the issue of the primaries, which concern political parties.

“Being a multi-stakeholder activity, these matters cannot be determined by the Commission alone without consultation with political parties which shall be responsible for conducting pre-election activities involving their members and the security agencies that have the responsibility to secure the process,” INEC said.

The failure of INEC to make direct reference to primaries and offer a position buttresses the sensitivity of the matter, which lies at the heart of strategies of opposing camps within the APC towards clinching the presidential ticket for 2023 elections.

“There is no way any aspirant can defeat Asiwaju (Bola Tinubu) in a process that requires members from ward to ward to queue behind his poster or agent and that of others,” a senior government official, who is also a pro-Tinubu strategist said, asking not to be identified by name to protect his job.

“Not many politicians can come out to openly mobilise against Asiwaju, even if they covertly don’t like him. But in a delegate system, they can go against him; at least, that is a secret system.”



Meanwhile, the opposition PDP wants Mr Buhari to assent to the bill, the spokesperson, Kola Ologbodiyan told PREMIUM TIMES.

“The bill contains other germane issues and we cannot allow the APC to foil the process because we want to battle against the direct primaries provision,” Mr Ologbodiyan said.

“The party may challenge the direct primaries later, no party should foist a system on others. But sign the bill first.”

ALSO READ: Why Buhari should ‘quickly’ approve 2021 Electoral Bill – CSOs
Mr Ologbodiyan said the president did not consult with PDP as a stakeholder.


Apart from INEC, the presidency also sought the views of the offices of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Inspector-General of Police, and Vice-President.

The AGF’s spokesperson, Umar Gwandu, said he had no information on the response of his principal, Abubakar Malami, to the request for advice by the President.

Presidency spokespersons, Garba Shehu, Femi Adesina and Laolu Akande, did not comment for this report as they did not return calls to their phones.

But a senior State House official, who agreed to speak “in strictest confidence” because he has no authority to discuss with the press on the matter, suggested that Mr Buhari favours direct primaries, allowing members to decide who their parties present for elections.

“What I can tell you in strictest confidence is that Presidency is clearly dissatisfied with the seeming isolation of the people and party members from the party selection process as it is,” the official said. “And the President is determined to correct this as a legacy.”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/499679-exclusive-inec-replies-presidency-endorses-electoral-bill.html

Cc Seun Mynd44 Lalasticlala

2023 is now game on

Can any thing good come out of this terrorist sponsors and sympathizers party?

Yahaya Bello is still a political apprentice. I am just laughing at his next political mistake. How can a man who can not even govern Kogi state very well is talking about president?

You don't expect a product of fraudulent elections like Buhari to sign the improve electoral bill and that was why Femi Adesina said recently that reputation of Buhari won't diminish whether he assents to the electoral amendment bill or not.

In other words, Nothing will happen to Buhari’s reputation if he doesn’t sign electoral bill -

https://dailypost.ng/2021/12/07/nothing-will-happen-to-buharis-reputation-if-he-doesnt-sign-electoral-bill-presidency/

The president should sign the amended electoral law immediately. There is no point holding back because of a particular clause that can be challenged later at the court. We need the new law to improve our electioneering process and restore credibility and transparency to our election.

The secret party voting system is better, the reaction to the results will be less toxic...

Xscape1993:
Can any thing good come out of this terrorist sponsors and sympathizers party?

This kind of comments do not enrich debate and that's why it seems you guys just want to turn nairaland to your garbage bin where you drop trash, and toxic nasty contents .

Nation building and governance is serious business and for serious minded people. If you don't like a policy, give a credible alternative or just ignore it as recklessness is not exercising of right to speech. It's the law, morality,IQ and EQ.

That's why governments are winning the debate that social media be regulated.

You can't say and write rubbish, defame , troll or bully in real life and get away with it, so why write rubbish, defame, cyberbully and troll online and not be held to account for it?

Thank God for this NIN registration.

E DON HAPPEN OOOO

BigSarah:
The secret voting system is better, the reaction to the results will be less toxic...

We have since abandoned secret voting. What we now use is modified open system. For parties, it has to be done in the open for legitimacy of the exercise. We are having too many problems with lack of legitimacy and post election litigations.
Those who emerged by the indirect primaries system take public funds to buy legitimacy they never got and the vicious circle continues.
While direct primaries may not be a silver bullet, it will humble those who want elective positions henceforth.
Direct primaries are cheaper in the medium and long term because people may collect your money and vote against you at direct primaries and since INEC will be there it will be too late to reverse the defeat.

We should not allow pertisan politics to interrupt democracy system of Nigeria .Direct primary is the best !!!! presidency should do the needful .Tinubu is not the beginning and the end of this country .the system should start on its own first before considering politicians.

FreeStuffsNG:

We have since abandoned secret voting. What we now use is modified open system. For parties, it has to be done in the open for legitimacy of the exercise. We are having too many problems with lack of legitimacy and post election litigations.
Those who emerged by the indirect primaries system take public funds to buy legitimacy they never got and the vicious circle continues.
While direct primaries may not be a silver bullet, it will humble those who want elective positions henceforth.
Direct primaries are cheaper in the medium and long term because people may collect your money and vote against you at direct primaries and since INEC will be there it will be too late to reverse the defeat.

Direct primaries will cause alot of bad blood, and create a Victor and Loser aura even before the main election...

BigSarah:


Direct primaries will cause alot of bad blood, and create a Victor and Loser aura even before the main election...

Indirect primaries create even more and at huge cost to the tax payers. A case in point is the recent Anambra state election, all the candidates of the leading parties, including the eventual winner, suffered legitimacy issues and some of these litigations are yet to be decided in court.
Same problem is hanging like a sword of Damocles on the APC Caretaker Committee and could have cost APC it's governorship mandate in Ondo.
With direct primaries, the elected revert to the ordinary members to get legitimacy and once he or she gets it, the people now have a stake in the leadership and he won't be under serious pressure to steal taxpayers money to buy legitimacy after getting into office. I always like to remind us of Edo State. HE Obaseki is a victim of the indirect primaries in both APC and PDP. He allegedly had to cough out N6 billion to PDP stalwarts to buy the PDP gubernatorial ticket. It's been over a year, he is still buying legitimacy in PDP and using the state resources to fight Chief Orbih and his de facto group in Edo PDP.

seunmsg:
The president should sign the amended electoral law immediately. There is no point holding back because of a particular clause that can be challenged later at the court. We need the new law to improve our electioneering process and restore credibility and transparency to our election.

You think he will sign it?i don’t think so. What would happen is he would send the bill back to NASS and tell them to make it optional. Hope you read what Femi Adesina said about whether he signs it or doesn’t not affecting his democratic credentials? That is a clue

President Buhari ought to consult widely before signing the bill. The controversial direct primary clause must be resolved satisfactorily by all stakeholders before assent. Hear from all 18 political parties first like Inec advised.

Something same INEC headed by Fulani will twist in favor of HausafulaniKanuri region of the North to produce another Buhari breed?

Weak Institutions beget Strong Individuals.

This is the Bedrock of Corruption and Nepotism

adekolaelect:
We should not allow pertisan politics to interrupt democracy system of Nigeria .Direct primary is the best !!!! presidency should do the needful .Tinubu is not the beginning and the end of this country .the system should start on its own first before considering politicians.

Direct primary is the worst. It is fraught with irregularities and worst form of corruption. A case in point is the APC primary in Anambra state where Andy Uba was alloted over 300k votes for a sham that didn't hold but finished with less than 50k votes in the main election.

seunmsg:
The president should sign the amended electoral law immediately. There is no point holding back because of a particular clause that can be challenged later at the court. We need the new law to improve our electioneering process and restore credibility and transparency to our election.

The bill was sent to him to look at; item by item.
It's either he declines the bill because of one item or sign the whole bill.
The best is to return the bill to NASS so that contentious clause will be expunged. Those that put it there knew it was going to be a snag.

Maxymilliano:
You don't expect a product of fraudulent elections like Buhari to sign the improve electoral bill.This was why Femi Adesina said recently that reputation of Buhari won't diminish whether he assents to the electoral amendment bill or not.In other words, Nothing will happen to Buhari’s reputation if he doesn’t sign electoral bill...

INEC website shows how Buhari benefitted from manual voting in 2015.Figures obtained from the website of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) have confirmed the extent of manual voting in the 2015 presidential election.

According to a report on the commission’s website, the All Progressives Congress (APC) got most of the votes cast without bio-metric verification during the election.The report confirms an earlier analysis by TheCable on the voting statistics.

According to the report, 13,536,311 votes were cast manually during the 2015 presidential poll, representing 42.6 percent of the 31,746,490 accredited voters.

Of that number, the INEC report showed 10,184,720 votes representing 75 percent of the total votes cast were from states won by Muhammadu Buhari, then presidential candidate of the APC, while 3,351,591 votes representing 25 percent came from states won by Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Data from INEC

The report also showed that 10 states mostly affected by manual voting include Kebbi, Zamfara, Niger, Bauchi, Plateau, Kaduna, Jigawa, Katsina, Sokoto and Kano: the APC won in nine of the states.

CONTROVERSIES, SHOCK

The initial story published by TheCable regarding the issue was received with both shock and controversy.
While some doubted the authenticity of the report and argued it was fabricated, others expressed disbelief, especially considering the lingering controversy on the use of card readers.

Tolu Ogunlesi, a presidential aide, had said the data as reported appears to have been fabricated while Ayo Obe, a legal practitioner, said she learnt the data did not come from INEC.Excerpts from his tweets and other people who initially doubted the report:

@toluogunlesi
" The data that @DeepDiveNG used to ‘generate’ that ‘Report’ appears to have been fabricated. But all sorts of people have been gleefully quoting it, including @I_Am_Ilemona on @ChannelsTV.I would like to know: Who’s behind @DeepDiveNG? Didn’t see any names/faces on their website.

Ayo Obe @naijama
Things I learnt while at The Electoral Institute yesterday:
1. That report about @MBuhari getting 75% of his votes in 2015 from areas where card readers were not used did not come from @inecnigeria or its data.
2. INEC will use #PVC #CardReaders in all the 2019 elections.

Kayode Ogundamisi @ogundamisi
." @thecableng please next time conduct your own investigation or verify before you publish.You could have easily contacted @inecnigeria for verification. 
Especially info from a website registered in 2018. Please don't be a victim of #FakeNews victim of PDP #AtikuDubaiStrategy pic.twitter.com/VMheuh9tAC"
12:43 PM - Dec 14, 2018

But data from the commission has now laid all that to rest.When contacted by TheCable on Friday, Rotimi Oyekanmi, chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, declined to comment.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.thecable.ng/confirmed-inec-website-shows-how-buhari-benefitted-from-manual-voting-in-2015/amp

BigSarah:


Direct primaries will cause alot of bad blood, and create a Victor and Loser aura even before the main election...

Tinubu has won another battle. His boys, Gbaja and Lawan have done well. Tinubu keep pressing the neck of his haters.


- erase the dot

Xscape1993:
Yahaya Bello is still a political apprentice. I am just laughing at his next political mistake. How can a man who can not even govern Kogi state very well is talking about president?

Yahya Bello is a noise maker �

Great. Less rigging ability for politicians

Great

EraseTheDot:

Tinubu has won another battle. His boys, Gbaja and Lawan have done well. Tinubu keep pressing the neck of his haters.


- erase the dot

There can be victory only when the president assents to the bill

Vistra40:


There can be victory only when the president assents to the bill

He will. He didn't sign it going into 2019 election, he promised to sign it ahead of next election.



-erase the dot

If the president refused to sign the new electoral act amendment, the national assembly should override him by invoking two third members.

EraseTheDot:

He will. He didn't sign it going into 2019 election, he promised to sign it ahead of next election.



-erase the dot

I pray

JAMO84:
If the president refused to sign the new electoral act amendment, the national assembly should override him by invoking two third members.

They can’t

road clearing for ..... the man whom the cap fit

coded

Vistra40:


They can’t

Why do you think they can't? They already indicated to the President that if the Governors stand against their wish to persuade the President not to sign it, they will override his veto.
That's why I believe the President is consulting regardless of the eventual action the NA takes.

Wrong headline. INEC did not accept the direct primaries. Passes to parties@