Electoral Bill: Anxiety As 30-Day Period For President’s Assent Ends

President Muhammadu Buhari has refused assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill after thirty days of receiving the document from the National Assembly.

Recall that the Bill was forwarded to the president by the National Assembly on November 19, 2021.

After the 30-day wait period for Presidential assent expired yesterday, the National Assembly can now decide to override the presidential veto and pass the amendment bill into law with two-thirds majority votes in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

It is expected that the president will write the National Assembly to explain his reasons for withholding assent, although there are also suggestions that he may decide to sign the legislation after the stipulated time.

However, the National Assembly is set to go on recess for the Yuletide on December 21 and would not resume until the third week of January 2022, a development that has heightened the uncertainty over the fate of the amendment bill.

The National Assembly would have gone on recess on December 16 if not for a delay in the passage of the 2022 budget.

It is yet to be known whether the National Assembly would decide to override the president by moving to pass the bill with a two-thirds majority, even though the lawmakers are believed to have a strong interest in ensuring the compulsory adoption of direct primaries by political parties.

Members of the National Assembly believe that direct primaries would whittle down the enormous influence wielded by governors in the selection of political party candidates for elections through the indirect primary model.