The Nigerian Senate has in a brief deliberation on Tuesday, made yet another amendment to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, Njenje Media News reports.
The lawmakers amended the controversial Clause 84 of the bill that deals with the mode of primary election to be used by political parties to select candidates for elective offices.
In the bill earlier passed by the National Assembly in 2021, the lawmakers prescribed that political parties use only a direct mode of primary.
But President Muhammadu Buharirejected the legislation citing insecurity, the cost of conducting direct primaries and infringement on the rights of Nigerians to participate in governance as his reasons for declining assent.
He had promised to sign the bill if changes are made to the clause, to include the addition of consensus candidates and indirect primary options to the mode of selecting a candidate for an election.
Last week, both the Senate and the House of Representatives amended the bill.
But while the Senate allowed for direct or indirect primaries or consensus as procedures for selecting candidates for elective offices, the House adopted only direct and indirect primaries.
But in the harmonized version of the bill considered by the Senate, the lawmakers adopted all three modes of primaries, with a clear definition of “how parties can use consensus to elect candidate.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan while announcing the resolution of the upper legislative chamber said:
“Today, the Senate re-amended for a second time, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2022, to harmonize its position with that of the House of Representatives which contains provisions that clearly defines the mode of primaries for political parties.”
“You would recall that the Senate and the House passed the Electoral Act amendment Bill with slight difference. While the House passed the mode of primaries to be direct and indirect only, the Senate passed the mode of primaries to be direct, indirect and consensus.
“But with the amendment today, what we have done is to adopt the version passed by the house and also give very clear and sufficient definition to each mode of the primaries.
“The direct primary is well defined on how it will be conducted; ditto the Indirect primaries. And for the consensus, the two chambers have produced in this Bill, very clear definition of how a consensus candidate would emerge.
“Therefore, we are very glad that we have been able to achieve this consensus between the two chambers to arrive at this harmonized version, and we are also very optimistic that Mr. President will sign the bill.
“Our desire is to ensure that we reform the electoral processes in Nigeria for better transparency, accountability and Integrity to the satisfaction of Nigerians and the international community.
“Political parties, when this is signed into law, will have the responsibility of ensuring that they follow the law, otherwise they will end up missing the opportunity to participate in elections.”
