President Muhammadu Buhar |
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s rejection of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Imo Ugochinyere, CUPP Publicity Secretary, in a statement on Tuesday, said the development was deliberate.
On Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National
Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, explained that the president
declined assent to the bill due to some drafting issues.
According to him, one of the concerns of the president is the period fixed for primaries.
He said the schedule for primaries provided that it should not be earlier than 120 days and not later than 90 days to elections.
Enang further said the schedule would allow the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) only 9 days to collate list of candidates
among others.
Reacting, the CUPP noted that the rejection was an indication that
the Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) government “want to
destroy the chances of free and fair election in Nigeria simply because
they are afraid of losing the 2019 general election”.
Ugochinyere declared that the president and the ruling party were
scared of the compulsory use of card readers for accreditation and
transmission of election results which the new electoral law provides
for.
CUPP further urged the National Assembly to, “use a joint sitting
whenever they return from recess to handle the INEC budget issue and
Electoral Act observations and send the clean copy back to President
Buhari so that he will have no excuse to ruin our desire for credible
elections“.
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