JUST IN: National Assembly transmits re-amended electoral bill to President Buhari for assent

The National Assembly has transmitted the re-amended Electoral Act Amendment Bill to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.

President Buhari’s Senior Special Assistant on NASS Matters (Senate), Senator Babajide Omoworare, disclosed this in a statement on Monday.

He explained that the transmission of the bill was in line with the provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.

Omoworare stated that the Clerk to the National Assembly, Olatunde Ojo, transmitted the authenticated copies of the bill to the President on Monday.

“The Clerk to the National Assembly Mr Olatunde Amos Ojo has transmitted the authenticated copies of the Electoral Bill 2022 to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Muhammadu Buhari GCFR on 31st January 2022,” he said.

“This was done in accordance with the provisions of Section 58 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and the Acts Authentication Act Cap. A2 LFN 2004.

“Mr. President had withheld assent to the Electoral Bill 2021 transmitted to him on 19th November 2021. The Electoral Bill was thereafter reworked by the National Assembly and both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed same on 25th January 2022.”

This comes a week after lawmakers in the Senate and House of Representatives passed the harmonised version of the bill.

President Buhari had withheld his assent to the bill in November last year, citing the cost of conducting direct primary elections, security challenges, and possible manipulation of electoral processes by political actors as part of the reasons for his decision.

While he gave the conditions to give his assent, the lawmakers went on to rework the bill which initially led to the emergence of two versions from the green and red chambers of the assembly.

While the House re-amended the bill to include the direct and indirect primary options, the Senate re-adjusted to include the direct, indirect, and consensus modes of selecting political parties’ candidates.

On Tuesday last week, lawmakers in the two chambers passed the harmonised version of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill – the final agreed version of the amendment to Clause 84 of the bill.

This bill included the direct, indirect, and consensus primary modes of nominating candidates by political parties for elections.