President Muhammadu Buhari’s Special Adviser, Femi Adesina, has disclosed that his Boss has not signed the amended Electoral Bill sent to him by the National Assembly on January, 31.
According to the presidential spokesman, the president has a window of 30 days within which to sign the bill or decline assent after it had been transmitted to him by the National Assembly.
Critics said the delay in the signing of the Bill could be a ploy by the ruling All Progressives Congress to force the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), to rely on the existing Act for the conduct of the next general elections, which are a year away.
“A proposed legislation that has to do with the electoral fortunes of the country needs to be thoroughly scrutinised and be made as near-perfect as possible”, the presidential media adviser said, in a statement.
“Those playing cheap politics with it are, therefore, encouraged to hold their peace, knowing that the right thing will be done within the lawful time”, he added.
Recall that the Inter-Party Advisory Council, (IPAC), said, earlier in the month, that there may be a deliberate ploy to not sign the bill to foreclose the use of the Bio-metric Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
With elections in Nigeria often-times rigged, many believe the BVAS could help reduce instances of electoral malpractices.
According to IPAC’s National Chairman, Yabagi Yusuf Sani,
“The greatest fears of Nigerians, and those of us at IPAC, is that in the event of such a scenario, the widely hailed BVAS, as well as the electronic transmission of results along with other cardinal components of the Bill, will not be mandatory for use by INEC in the elections.
“The leadership of IPAC is loath (sic) to buy into the opinion held in many quarters that all the controversies over the Electoral Bill might have been a deliberate and conscious conspiracy by power interests in the Executive and the Legislature, who are averse to positive changes that make it difficult for them to continue in their old game of manipulating the electoral process”, Sani further said.
