By Baron Ike
President Muhammadu Buhari has withheld assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill which was recently passed to the Presidency by the National Assembly.
He did through a letter he sent to the National Assembly on Tuesday and entitled, ‘Presidential Decision To Withhold Assent To The Electoral Amendment Bill 2018’.
According to President Buhari: “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.”
Citing some of the reasons, Buhari said:
“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 amend 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.”