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The Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) Caucus in the National Assembly has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the reworked Electoral Act ( Amendment ) Bill 2022 into law without further delay.
The Caucus made the call at a meeting with members of the Board of Trustees ( BOT) of the PDP at the Senate wing of the National Assembly Complex, Abuja on Tuesday.
Senate Minority Leader, Enyinnaya Abaribe in his remarks said, having bent backwards as requested by President Buhari on the earlier rejected electoral bill, the bill should be signed without any delay .
“The President in rejecting the earlier one transmitted to him in November last year , said indirect and consensus mode of primary elections were added to the new one as requested by President Buhari.
” Now that we have bent backwards , no excuse or reason should be given again . Provisions of the bill are very critical for expected credibility of the 2023 general elections,” he said.
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Similarly, Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Ndudi Elumelu alleged that Governors on the platform of the All Progressives Congress(APC) are lobbying the President not to sign the Bill .
He said the move will be resisted by the PDP and forward looking Nigerians generally because of other very important provisions in the Bill like section 52 which deals with electronic transmission of election results .
“The plan of using mandayory direct primaries to scuttle the bill has failed because the National Assembly has widened the scope as requested by the President.
“No other unresolved issues or observations are left in the bill transmitted to the President on Monday this week .
“No more excuses , no more delay , it should be signed in the interest of credibility and sanctity of the electoral process in the country,” Elumelu said.
The Clerk to the National Assembly Olatunde Ojo had on Monday transmitted the authenticated copies of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill to President Buhari for assent.
That 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.
The President had withheld assent to the Bill transmitted to him on 19th November 2021 over the provision for compulsory direct primary election and that was amended by the National Assembly, now including indirect and consensus methods of nominating candidates for election.
