President Muhammadu Buhari
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has slammed
President Muhammadu Buhari’s rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment
Bill.
Speaking on behalf of the group, Imo Ugochinyere, CUPP Publicity
Secretary, in a statement on Tuesday, said the development was
deliberate.
On Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on
National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, explained that the
president declined assent to the bill due to some drafting issues.
According to him, one of the concerns of the president is the period fixed for primaries.
He said the schedule for primaries provided that it should not be earlier than 120 days and not later than 90 days to elections.
Enang further said the schedule would allow the Independent
National Electoral Commission (INEC) only 9 days to collate list of
candidates among others.
Reacting, the CUPP noted that the rejection was an indication that the Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) government
“want to destroy the chances of free and fair election in Nigeria
simply because they are afraid of losing the 2019 general election”.
Ugochinyere declared that the president and the ruling party were
scared of the compulsory use of card readers for accreditation and
transmission of election results which the new electoral law provides
for.
CUPP further urged the National Assembly to, “use a joint
sitting whenever they return from recess to handle the INEC budget issue
and Electoral Act observations and send the clean copy back to
President Buhari so that he will have no excuse to ruin our desire for
credible elections“.