President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Nigerian Senate, seeking the amendment of the Electoral Act 2022, he recently signed into law.
This was contained in a letter addressed to the President of Senate, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, and read out during plenary on Tuesday.
The President, in the letter is seeking the outright deletion of Section 84 (12) of the act on the grounds that the provision amounted to the disenfranchisement of political appointees.
The section has to do with the resignation of political appointees before party primaries.
Recall that Buhari, while delivering his speech during the signing ceremony of the bill expressed his reservations about the Section 84(12), saying the provision “constitutes fundamental defect, as it is in conflict with extant constitutional provisions.
“Section 84 (12) constitutes a disenfranchisement of serving political office holders from voting or being voted for at Conventions or Congresses of any political party, for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election in cases where it holds earlier than 30 days to the National Election. The section provides as follows:- “No political appointee at any level shall be voting delegate or be voted for at the Convention or Congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election”.
“This provision has introduced qualification and disqualification criteria that ultra vires the Constitution by way of importing blanket restriction and disqualification to serving political office holders of which they are constitutionally accorded protection,” the president had said.
