TheCable

The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) says it is shocked that President Muhammadu Buhari rejected the electoral act amendment bill.

TheCable reported how the national assembly had transmitted the bill to the president on November 19, with recommendations on electronic transmission of results and direct primaries for political parties.

But the president, in a letter addressed to the national assembly, kicked against the recommendations on the grounds of cost and that adopting direct primaries “violates the spirit of democracy”.

Reacting in a statement on Wednesday, Idayat Hassan, director of CDD, said the national assembly cannot allow a single provision to hinder the proposed bill.

She asked the national assembly to either override Buhari and pass the bill or remove the provisions on direct primary and re-present the bill to the president.

“Nigerians had all expected that President Buhari would write his name in gold as the President who bequeathed an improved electoral framework on the country,” she said.

“As the election is just fourteen months away, the CDD is calling on the National Assembly to immediately toe two immediate options. Which is either veto the President and pass the Electoral Act 2021 bill into an act of the National Assembly. Or Immediately remove the provisions on direct primaries as raised by the President and immediately re-present the bill to the President for his assent.

“We must not allow a single provision truncate the goodness in the proposed electoral bill. Nigeria is in dire need of a new and robust framework for the conduct of elections. The reform in the Electoral Bill 2021 will improve the quality of elections thereby imbuing citizens’ trust in our democracy.

“The National Assembly as the true representative of the people must not allow the huge human and financial resources that went into the Electoral Bill 2021 – from drafting to readings at the floor, the public hearing, the committee works, the retreat, the conference committee et al to go to waste.

“The National Assembly must act, and the time is now. Save our Elections and our Democracy!”