President Muhammadu Buhari, has on Tuesday written to the senate declining assent to the controversial bill seeking to re-order the election sequence recently passed by the National Assembly.
In the letter which was read before the hallowed chamber, Buhari stated that ”Pursuant to section 58(4) of the 1999 constitution as amended, I hereby convey to the Senate my decision on March 3, 2018 to decline presidential assent to the electoral amendment bill 2018 recently passed by the National Assembly.”
The President said some of his reasons for withholding assent to the bill was that, ”The amendment to the sequence of the elections in section 25 of the principal act may infringe upon the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to organise, undertake and supervise all elections provided in section 15(a) of the third schedule to the constitution.”
He also said that the amendment to section 138 of the principal act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidate unduly limits the rights of candidates to a free and fair electoral review process.
He also said that the amendment to section 152 sub-section 3-5 of the principal act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over local government elections.