Femi Falana, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has explained why President Muhammadu Buhari has not assented to the electoral bill.
Falana said some governors in the All Progressives Congress (APC) are influencing President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision not to assent to the electoral bill.
The national assembly had on November 19 transmitted the electoral act amendment bill to the president for assent.
Speaking on why the president has not assented to the bill, Falana said: “The president is reluctant to give assent to the bill because the powerful governors in his party, the ruling party, are saying it is going to be much more expensive for them to run direct primaries,”
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“Therefore, throw away the baby and the bath water. But where they’re actually going is that those governors have not recovered from the shock of having electronic vote. They know manipulation will be reduced to the minimum.
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“That’s why they are asking the president to throw away that bill. They aren’t saying ‘take it back to the national assembly so that the area of direct primaries can be removed’.
“The bill can be rejected only on one ground. The 2018 bill was rejected by the president on the ground that it’s too close to the 2019 election. Now, the president may also say signing this bill now may be too close to the election and might cause confusion.”
