Why we are in disagreement with President Buhari over electoral act - House of Reps

macfranc007 March 15, 2018 IFTTT, Nigeria News today & Breaking news ▷ Read Nigerian newspapers 24/7 Omotayo Yusuf

- The House of Representatives said it disagreed with President Muhammadu Buhari

- The president withdrew assent for electoral act

- The House said it has the constitutional right to do so

The House of Representatives has said that it will not go back on the reordering of the election after President Muhammadu Buhari withdrew assent for the electoral act.

Tribune reports that Honourable Abdulrasaq Namdas who is the chairman of the House committee on media and public affair said they had received President Buhari’s letter.

He noted that the law gave the parliament the power to decide on election and disagreed with President Buhari that this would affect the independence of the Independent National Electoral Commission.

He said: “We will not act on the electoral act until the president either assent or choose to withhold his assent, and from there we will know the action that we are going to take.

“The President has actually written to us and has withheld assent for the electoral act and he has stated the reason for doing so.

“I want to say that as a responsible Parliament we have agreed with two of the three reasons given by the President.

“We agreed with the first one that the amendment of Section 138 of the principal act to delete two crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates and duly limit the right of candidates to a free and fair election.

“We also agreed with the President that the amendment of Section 152 (3-5) of the principal act which raises an issue over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over local government elections, this too we have agreed with that.

“However we are in disagreement with the President over the first reason that was advanced which states that sequence of the election in Section 25 of the principal act may infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organise, undertake and supervise all elections provided in Section 15 subsection A of the Third Schedule of the constitution.

“Section 4 of the legislative powers, item 22 it says that the National Assembly has power over the election to the office of the President, Vice President, the governor and deputy governor or any other offices to wit anybody may be elected under this constitution excluding election to local government council or any office in such council.

“If the legislative House law gives us this power that means we have power on the order of elections.”

Meanwhile, the United Progressives Party (UPP) stated that President Buhari is afraid of losing the 2019 presidential election; and that was why he declined to assent to the Electoral Amendment Bill sent to him by the National Assembly, Daily Trust reports.

The party made its comments in a statement released by its national chairman, Chekwas Okorie.

NAIJ.com gathers that the party stated that candidates of various political parties would be able to win elections on the basis of merit and popularity of their parties' manifesto, if the bill is signed into law.

Should President Buhari seek reelection in 2019? - on NAIJ.com Street Gist: