The decision of the @NGRPresident to withhold Assent in respect of a Bill to enact a Law to amend the Electoral Act makes no sense. The Final draft Bill considered by @nassnigeria , was agreed with the President, precisely to avoid challenges, such as now occurred.
Thread
Thread
The President states that part of the reason he has withheld Assent is to avoid confusion as to the applicable legal framework for 2019 Elections and the administrative capacity of INEC to cope with the new Electoral Act, as it is all too close to 2019 elections.
We will recall that the 2015 elections were partly conducted by INEC, using smart cards (card readers) as well as using Incident forms; in cases where the card readers malfunctioned. In effect smart cards and Incident Forms were both used to conduct 2015 elections.
We will also recall that there was a lot of controversy about the use of Incident Forms as it enabled non accredited persons to vote, questioning the credibility of the elections.
In order to remove constraints that will impact the credibility of future elections, such as 2019, the Electoral Act 2010, was amended by the 2018 Bill, to formalize the legal basis of the Smart Cards which was already in use for elections by @inecnigeria anyway.
The President claims that part of the reason for withholding Assent, is that @inecnigeria will not have enough time to become familiar with the 2018 Bill and that a new Act will generate confusion. @inecnigeria says it is familiar with the amendments contained in the 2018 bill.
In other words, @inecnigeria is ready to deploy electronic technology for 2019 elections, and only requires that the Electoral Act provides a legal framework. I hereby urge the distinguished and members of @nassnigeria to override @NGRPresident and enact 2018 Electoral Act.
