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Senators are set to adopt the reordering of schedule of elections approved by the House of Representatives, BusinessDay learns.
A member of the conference committee on the Amendment of the Electoral Act, who attended the panel’s meeting on Wednesday last week, said lawmakers had resolved to override the President’s veto, should he veto the proposal.
Both chambers had constituted a conference committee to harmonise the two versions of the amended electoral bill before transmitting it to President Muhammadu Buhari for his assent.
Recall that the House of Representatives had voted to change the order of elections in the country, a move that will alter the dates and timetable recently released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the 2019 general elections, if the bill is enacted.
In the proposal, lawmakers amended the Electoral Act by approving that the conduct of National Assembly election will hold first, followed by governorship and House of Assembly, while the presidential election will be conducted last.
In INEC’s timetable, presidential and National Assembly elections were billed for February 16, 2019, and governorship and house of assembly poll fixed for March 2, 2019.
“We are no longer comfortable with the bandwagon effects and winner-takes-all approach whenever the presidential election holds first.
“We want a level playing field for all political parties irrespective of being a governing party or in opposition. As it stands, the party with the majority in the Presidential election is likely to win majority of governorship and state assembly elections and this does not augur well for our polity. Let the presidential election hold last and let the people decide,” a member of the conference committee, who pleaded anonymity, said.
Citing the enactment of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) by the National Assembly, in the early days of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, another lawmaker reiterated that if President Muhammadu Buhari declines assent, the National Assembly would replicate what it did with the NDDC bill, by vetoing the president.
According to him, lawmakers are set to activate Section 58 (5) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), should the President withhold his assent on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill.
The section provides: “Where the President withholds his assent and the bill is again passed by each House by two-thirds majority, the bill shall become law and the assent of the President shall not be required.”
The implication is that 73 senators and 240 members of the House of Representatives would be needed to actualise this.
At the moment, the Senate is made up of 67 members of the All Progressives Congress (APC), 41 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members and a member from All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA).
A source in the National Assembly who did not want his name in print, said the same scenario that played out in June 2015 when lawmakers from the governing APC teamed up with their colleagues in the opposition to produce the Presiding Officers of the two chambers of the National Assembly, would repeat itself if the President vetoes the bill.
Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, had earlier told BusinessDay that the harmonised report of the conference committee would be out this week.
In what appears to be a new twist, the electoral body has dismissed media reports that it would approach the Supreme Court to challenge the powers of the National Assembly to alter the released timetable and schedule of activities for the 2019 exercise.
INEC national commissioner and chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee (IVEC), Solomon Soyebi, revealed that it was ready to comply with the new law once signed into law.
“The 1999 Constitution supports the amendment. We looked at the constitution and we discovered that we are told to conduct elections according to the constitution and the Electoral Act. If there is an amendment to the Act, we have no choice but to obey it. There is nothing anybody can do about it once it becomes law,” he said.
The implication is that the electoral body will amend the released timetable to reflect the amended Electoral Act once signed into law.
