The electoral Act amendment bill which seeks to re-order the sequence of poll in 2019 as presented by the house has been rejected by the President. the President in a letter written to both chambers on the 8th of march 2018 said the amendments by the law maker is in contrary to the existing laws.
the Senate President Bukola Saraki read the letter to the members of the upper chamber on Tuesday and Yakubu Dogara speaker of the house also read the letter to the law makers at the House of Representatives.
The letter 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 Act Amendment Bill 2018 recently passed by the National Assembly.
“Some of my reasons for withholding assent to the bill include the following: the amendment to the sequence of the elections in Section 25 of the principal Act may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission to organise, undertake and supervise all elections provided in Section 15(a) of the Third Schedule of 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.”
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