Tuesday, December 21, 2021 / 09:03 PM / by Leke Baiyewu of Punch Newspaper /
Header Image Credit: Vanguard
The President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan; and Speaker
of House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, at the opening of plenary on
Tuesday, read the communication from the President, Major General Muhammadu
Buhari (retd.), on his rejection of the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill.
Gbajabiamila said the House would act on Buhari's
communication when the National Assembly resumes in January.
The National Assembly is closing for the year today after
passing the 2022 Appropriation Bill and the 2021 Finance Bill.
The letter, which was dated December 13, 2021, was
received by the House on December 21, 2021.
It was titled, 'Withholding of Assent to Electoral Act
Amendment Bill 2021'.
The letter read, "Further to the fetter dated 18th
November 2021, forwarded for presidential assent, the Electoral Act
(Amendment) Bill 2021, as passed by the National Assembly, I have received
informed advice from relevant ministries, departments and agencies of the
government, and have also carefully reviewed the bill in light of the current
realities prevalent in the Federal Republic of Nigeria in the circumstances.
"Arising from the review, Rt. Honourable Speaker may
wish to note that the conduct of elections for the nomination of party
candidates solely via direct primaries as envisaged by the Electoral Act
(Amendment) Bill 2021 has serious adverse legal, financial, economic and
security consequences which cannot be accommodated at the moment considering
our nation's peculiarities. It also has implications on the rights of citizens
to participate in the government as constitutionally ensured.
"The Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2021 seeks to
amend certain provisions of the extant Electoral Act 2010. Part of the
objective of the bill is the amendment of the present Section 87 of the
Electoral Act, 2010, to delete the provision for the conduct of indirect
primaries in the nomination of party candidates such that party candidates can
henceforth only emerge through direct primaries.
"Arising from the review, Mr. Speaker may wish to
particularly note the pertinent issues implicated as follows to wit:
"The conduct of direct primaries across the 8,809
wards across the length and breadth of the country will lead to a significant
spike in the cost of conducting primary elections by parties as well as
increase in the cost of monitoring such elections by INEC who has to deploy
monitors across these wards each time a party is to conduct direct primaries
for the presidential, gubernatorial and legislative posts. The addition of
these costs with the already huge cost of conducting general elections will
inevitable lead to huge financial burden on both the political parties, INEC
and the economy in general at a time of dwindling revenues.
"The indirect consequences of the issues of high cost
and monetisation are that it will raise financial crimes and constitute further
strain on the economy. It will also stifle smaller parties without the enormous
resources required to mobilise all party members for the primaries. This is not
healthy for the sustenance of multi-party democracy in Nigeria.
"In addition to increased costs identified above,
conducting and monitoring primary elections across 8,809 wards will pose huge
security challenges as the security agencies will also be overstretched, direct
primaries will be open to participation from all and sundry and such large
turn-out without effective security coordination will also engender
intimidation and disruptions, thereby raising credibility issues for the
outcomes of such elections.
"The amendment as proposed is a violation of the
underlying spirit of democracy which is characterised by freedom of choices. Political
party membership is a voluntary exercise of the constitutional right to freedom
of association. Several millions of Nigerians are not card carrying members of
any political party. Thus, the emphasis should be on enabling qualified
Nigerians to vote for the candidate of their choice during general elections as
a means of participation in governance and furtherance of the concept of
universal adult suffrage or universal franchise.
The proposed amendment may also give rise to plethora
of Iitigations based on diverse grounds and issues of Law, including but not
limited to the fact that the proposed amendment cannot work in retrospect given
that the existing Constitution of the parties already registered with the
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) permits direct, indirect and
consensus primaries. This real possibility, will, without doubt, truncate the
electoral program of the nation as another electoral exercise is imminent
towards a change of government in 2023.
"Nigeria is at the moment still grappling with the
issues of monetisation of the political process and vote buying at both party
and general elections. The direct implication of institutionalising only direct
primaries is the aggravation of over-monetisation of the process as there will
be much more people a contestant needs to reach out to thereby further fuelling
corruption and abuse of office by incumbent contestants who may resort to
public resources to satisfy the increased demands and logistics of winning
party primaries.
"Direct primaries are also subject or susceptible to
manipulation or malpractices as most parties cannot boast of reliable and
verified membership Register or valid means of identification which therefore
means non-members can be recruited to vote by wealthy contestants to influence
the outcome. Rival parties can also conspire and mobilise people to vote
against a good or popular candidate in a party during its primaries just to
pave way for their own candidates. Whereas where voting is done by accredited delegates
during indirect primaries, the above irregularities are not possible.
It further read, "The major conclusions arrived at
upon the review are highlighted hereunder, to wit:
"Asides its serious adverse legal, financial, economic
and security consequences, the limitation or restriction of the nomination
procedures available to political parties and their members constitutes an
affront to the right to freedom of association. It is thus undemocratic to
restrict the procedure or means of nomination of candidates by political
parties, as it also amounts to undue interference in the affairs of political
parties.
"Indirect primaries or collegiate elections are part
of internationally accepted electoral practices. More so, direct primaries are
not free from manipulations and do not particularly guarantee the emergence of
the will of the people especially in circumstances like ours where it is near
impossible to sustain a workable implementation framework or structure thereof.
"In the premise of the above, I hereby signify to the
National Assembly that I am constrained to withhold assent to the Electoral Act
(Amendment) Bill 2021 in line with the provisions of Section 58(1) & (4) of
the 1999 Constitution (as amended). It is my considered position that the
political parties should be allowed to freely exercise right of choice in
deciding which of direct or indirect primary to adopt in the conduct of their
primary elections as their respective realities may permit.
"Please accept, Rt. Honourable Speaker, the assurance
of my highest deration and esteem".
Credit:
The post FULL
TEXT: Buhari's letter on withholding assent to electoral bill first appeared in Punchng.com on December 21, 2021.
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