President Muhammadu Buhari has listed reasons for his refusal to give assent to
the electoral act amendment bill sent to him by the National Assembly.
President Buhari on Tuesday, turned down the bill in a letter to the national assembly.
Some of the reasons as read out on the floor by Senate President,
Bukola Saraki, read:
“Pursuant to Section 58(4) of the
Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), I
hereby convey to the Senate, my decision, on 3rd March 2018, to decline
Presidential Assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill 2018 recently passed
by the National Assembly.
Some of my reasons include the following:
“The amendment to the sequence of elections in Section 25 of the
principal act, may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed
discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to
organize, undertake and supervise elections provided in Section 15(A) of
the third statue to the Constitution;
“The amendment to Section 138 of the principal act to delete two
crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates,
unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair
electoral review process;
“The amendment to Section 152 Subsection 325 of the Principal Act may
raise Constitutional issues over the competence of the National
Assembly to legislate over local government elections.”