The National Assembly Conference Committee on the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill has approved that the presidential election will be the last to be conducted in 2019.
This followed the adoption of the reordering of sequence of elections approved by the House of Representatives. This came to the fore at a meeting of the conference committee on Tuesday in Abuja, which adopted the recommendation of the House of Representatives.
After subjecting the reordering clause in the 2010 Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill to vote, the conference committee placed National Assembly election first.
This will be followed by the governorship and State House of Assembly polls, even as the presidential election is to be held last.
The conference committee said that the new election sequence would ensure that every candidate is elected on his own merit without riding on others’ popularity.
The development has confirmed BusinessDay story on Monday, which indicated that the version of the lower legislative chamber would be adopted.
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 and signed into law.
In the proposal, lawmakers amended the 2010 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, however, presidential and National Assembly elections were billed for February 16, 2019 and governorship and house of assembly poll fixed for March 2, 2019.
At the meeting on Tuesday, Chairman of the committee, Suleiman Nazif (APC Bauchi State), put the contentious issue to voice vote, which was unanimously adopted by the 12 members present.
Speaking after the unanimous adoption of the new sequence of election, Nazif said the bill did not in anyway violated any provisions of Section 76 of the 1999 constitution which empowers INEC to fix dates and conduct elections.
“For the avoidance of doubt, this bill with the inclusion of section 25(1) which makes provision for sequence of election different from the one earlier rolled out by INEC has not in any way violated any provisions of the laws governing the operations of the electoral body”, he said.
In his remarks, Chairman of the House Committee on INEC, Edward Pwajok said what the conference committee did was very necessary in giving credibility to the electoral process in the country.
He stated that “The sequence of election provision in the bill is not targeted at anybody but aimed at further given credibility to the electoral process by way of giving the electorates the opportunity to vote based on individual qualities of candidates vying for National Assembly seat”.
He added that if the bill is not assented to by the President, the lawmakers who based on national interest, adopted it, will use constitutional provisions at their disposal to make it see the light of the day.
“On whether it would be assented to or not by the President as far as we are concerned remains in the realm of conjuncture for now but if such eventually happens, we will know how to cross the bridge”, he declared.
Making further clarification on the sequence of election, a member of the Committee, Dino Melaye (APC Kogi State), said that while fixing date for election is the prerogative right of INEC, extant laws of the land gives schedules for such elections as sole responsibility of the National Assembly.
“Contrary to reports and comments by some Nigerians on the reordered sequence of election, National Assembly have not overlapped its boundaries “, he said.
Other members of the committee including Shehu Sani, Gilbert Nnaji, Abiodun Olujimi, Peter Nwaoboshi etc, also supported the reordered sequence of elections.
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
