ABUJA – The controversies surrounding the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is far from over as a coalition of Civil Society Organisations have given President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly Friday, January 21, 2022 deadline to conclude the amendment processes and assent.
The CSOs drawn from Yiaga Africa, International Press Centre, Centre for Citizens with Disability, The Albino Foundation, CLEEN Foundation, Institute for Media and Society, Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism among others, equally demanded the National Assembly ensure proper scrutiny of the bill to correct draft errors and cross-referencing gaps noticed in it.
While addressing a joint press conference in Abuja on Monday, Lanre Arogundade of International Press Centre and Ezenwa Nwagwu of Yiaga Africa also urged President Buhari to upon receipt of the re-transmitted bill provide his assent within a week.
On the debate over direct primaries, they said the clause should be expunged without delay so that the law can take effect especially with only 398 days left for the next general election to begin.
All these come just as the National Assembly is expected to resume on Tuesday.
The CSOs urged the National Assembly to feature the electoral amendment as a priority issue on the order paper for Tuesday.
“In deference to the national and public interest, the Senate and the House of Representatives should upon resumption on Tuesday, January 18, 2022 take legislative action at its first sitting to conclude the process and re-transmit the bill to President Buhari by Friday, January 21, 2022,” the CSOs stated.
They insisted that the Bill when assented to will facilitate early release of funds for INEC, inclusion of over 31million people with disabilities in the electoral process, legalising electronic accreditation of voters, checking incidence of overvoting, stop declaration of results under duress, electronic transmission of results among other benefits.
According to the CSOs, further delay to the conclusion of the electoral amendment process would be inimical to the preparations for Ekiti, Osun elections as the opportunity to test the operability of the new legislation and its latent innovations would be lost if the amendment process remains inconclusive.
