{"id":2459,"date":"2022-01-18T15:40:36","date_gmt":"2022-01-18T15:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2459"},"modified":"2022-01-18T15:40:46","modified_gmt":"2022-01-18T15:40:46","slug":"focus-on-electoral-bill-as-national-assembly-resumes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/focus-on-electoral-bill-as-national-assembly-resumes\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus on Electoral Bill as National Assembly Resumes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The\u00a0 National Assembly resumed this week after its nearly one month end of year vacation. It resumes to its final full year of legislative duties. The 9th<\/sup> Assembly is expected to wind down mid 2023, after the general elections in the year. Although it is a full year, it is feared that legislative business will suffer in 2022 owing to politics, campaigns and election preparations. There is however, fear that the preparations for the elections\u00a0 faces the challenge of the uncertainty of electoral reform. The Electoral Bill 2021 which was passed by both houses of the National Assembly amid some controversy, was transmitted to the President on November 19, 2021 but vetoed when the President sent back communication to the National Assembly claiming that the non-inclusion of indirect primaries as an alternative mode for selection of candidates for elections, was going to cost a lot of money. According to the President, the National Assembly should in addition, to providing for direct primaries as it did, also provide for indirect primaries. In the President\u2019s words: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAsides its\nserious adverse legal, financial, economic and security consequences, the\nlimitation or restriction of the nomination procedures available to political\nparties and their members constitutes an affront to the right to freedom of\nassociation. It is thus undemocratic to restrict the procedure or means of\nnomination of candidates by political parties, as it also amounts to undue\ninterference in the affairs of political parties.<\/em> <\/em>Indirect\nprimaries or collegiate elections are part of internationally accepted\nelectoral practices.<\/em>\u201d<\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the National\nAssembly resuming this week, pressure is building from stakeholders,\nparticularly the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and civil\nsociety organisations for the National Assembly to resolve the impasse over the\nbill. National Assembly members appear divided on the best response to the\nPresident\u2019s veto. While some members are busy collecting signatures to override\nthe President\u2019s veto, others are calling for caution and for the legislators to\ntake the President\u2019s concerns to account, reintroduce indirect primaries into\nthe bill and send back to the President for assent. These cautious legislators\nare worried that as happened just before the 2019 general elections, President\nBuhari may just be looking for any excuse to refuse signing the new Electoral\nBill. The worry is that the hidden concern of the President may actually be\nsome of the reform provisions in the Electoral Bill, especially provisions for\nthe electronic transmission of election results and the use of technology in\nelections. The expectations of Nigerians is that the National Assembly will\nprioritise consideration for resolution to this matter, rather than the likely\nprotracted attempt to override the President\u2019s veto of the Electoral Bill. If\nthe National Assembly take the option of acceding to the President\u2019s request to\ninclude indirect primaries as an option for selection of candidates for\nelections in the Bill, it would not then be a protracted process. It should be\nnoted that the Senate had previously included indirect primaries in the version\nthat it had first passed. It removed this after the recommittal of the Bill and\nthe passage of a new one during the controversy within its chambers about\nelectronic transmission of results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Electoral Bill contains\nseveral provisions that address issues in the electoral system such as improved\nvoting procedures for persons with Disabilities (PWDs), legal backing for the\nuse of voting devices and electronic transmission of election results, among\nothers. Nigerians worry that any further delays to the enactment of an\nelectoral law for Nigeria will pose a serious threat to the conduct of the\nforthcoming 2023 Nigerian general elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The\u00a0 National Assembly resumed this week after its nearly one month end of year vacation. It resumes to its final full year of legislative duties. The 9th Assembly is expected to wind down mid 2023, after the general elections in the year. Although it is a full year, it is feared that legislative business will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2471,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2459\/revisions\/2471"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}