2019 ELECTION: INEC REACTS TO BUHARI’S REFUSAL TO SIGN ELECTORAL ACT AMENDMENT BILL
2019
ELECTION: INEC REACTS TO BUHARI’S REFUSAL TO SIGN ELECTORAL ACT AMENDMENT BILL
The Independent National Electoral
Commission, INEC, has reacted to President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent
to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill for the fourth time.
It was reported on Friday that
President Buhari, in a letter to the leadership of the National Assembly,
outlined reasons he withheld assent to the bill.
The Bill makes the use of card reader
mandatory, and demands that the 2019 elections should not be conducted with
incident forms.
INEC said although the rejected bill
would have addressed controversies that trailed the 2015 exercise especially
the place of technology and others that the amendments seek to address, Nigeria
can still have good elections with the extant act.
INEC’s Director of Voter Education and
Publicity, Mr. Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, spoke to reporters in Abuja yesterday,
explained that the Electoral Act 2010 as amended in 2015 would be the operative
law.
He said, “While it may be better to
have the necessary amendments to avoid some of the controversies that trailed
the 2015 exercise, especially the place of technology and others the amendments
seek to cure, we can still have good elections with the extant act as we did in
2015, which were adjudged free, fair and credible.”
On claims that 13.5 million voters
voted for Buhari without full biometric accreditation in 2015, INEC added, “How
was this determined? Biometric accreditation does not determine who a person
votes for. Put another way, the card reader is used for biometric
accreditation. It doesn’t determine how such persons vote.”
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