Senate Makes Fresh Amendment To Electoral Bill

In a brief deliberation on Tuesday, the Nigerian Senate made yet another amendment to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.

The lawmakers amended the controversial Clause 84 of the bill.

The clause 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 Buhari rejected 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 harmonised 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 candidates.”