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Buhari Must Scrutinise Electoral Act Amendment Bill Before Assent, Says Lawan

  Advertisement The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) may have to fall back on the 2010 Electoral Act as amended, used for the 2015 general elections … Continue reading Buhari Must Scrutinise Electoral Act Amendment Bill Before Assent, Says Lawan


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President Muhammadu Buhari (file)

 

The Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) may have to fall back on the 2010 Electoral Act as amended, used for the 2015 general elections in the event that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is not signed by President Muhammadu Buhari.

This comes as the Senate Leader, Senator Ahmed Lawan, told State House correspondents during an interview in Abuja on Friday that the President needs to scrutinise the bill before assenting to it.

He said, “The electoral bill we are talking about has been sent back twice or thrice; that is to tell you that the President is willing to sign the bill provided it meets certain conditions that will make our electoral processes better and saner.”

The lawmaker stated that it was within the constitutional right of the President to thoroughly scrutinise the document sent to him by the National Assembly before assenting to it.

Buhari Must Scrutinise Electoral Act Amendment Bill Before Assent, Says Lawan
President Muhammadu Buhari (file)

 

He also faulted the People Democratic Party (PDP) for insisting that President Buhari must sign the bill seeking to amend the Electoral Act.

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Senator Lawan who is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) argued that the bill was passed by the National Assembly and not the main opposition party.

He insisted that the President should be given the needed time to sign the bill when he deemed fit that the amendments made to the Act would be significant to the nation’s electoral process.

The lawmaker stressed, “I believe that the President is studying this bill, it is not like immediately we send it back he will just go and sign.

“This is a sign that the President is really interested in what we have sent back to him; it is for him and his advisers to read through line by line and see how best the electoral processes can be enhanced.”

 

Senate Leader Ahmed Lawan speaks to State House correspondents in Abuja on November 30, 2018.

Senator Lawan’s remarks come one month after lawmakers at the Senate and House of Representatives chambers passed the bill.

Before the passage of the bill in October, President Buhari had returned the bill for the third time after he made observations and withheld his assent to it.