The National Assembly has effectively started working to override the President’s veto on the electoral amendment bill.
The most controversial section in the bill is the re-ordered sequence of elections introduced in section 25, which allows the National Assembly to commence elections before the Presidency.
On 13th of March, President Muhammadu Buhari wrote to both chambers of the National Assembly explaining why he withheld his assent to the bill.
According to him, certain sections in the bill would infringe upon the rights given to the Independent National Electoral Commission in the Nigerian constitution.
Last week, the House of Representatives slated the bill for first reading.
Similarly, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on INEC, Suleiman Nazif sponsored the bill for first reading and was adopted by the red chamber today.
The bill was passed in the red chamber on the 30th of March 2017, in the green chamber on the 23rd of January 2018, and a harmonized version was presented on the 14th of February 2018.
