TECHNOCRAT MEDIA, Abuja
The Senate has passed the harmonised electoral amendment bill with the options of direct, indirect, or consensus as to the mode for parties’ primaries.
The harmonised bill was passed on Tuesday in Abuja at the plenary of the Senate.
The senate majority leader, Yahaya Abubakar Abdullahi sponsored a motion for the passage of the harmonised bill.
On his part, the senate president, Ahmad Lawan said the senate and house of representatives have passed the bill with slight differences noting that harmonization had been done.
“We recall that the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill with a slight difference. What we have done is to give very clear and sufficient definition to each mode of primaries.”
“By passing the amendment to Clause 84, the mode of conducting primaries by parties to produce candidates, we have concluded on our task on the amendment to the Electoral Act No. 6 2010 Bill.”
“The Direct Primaries is well defined and how it should be conducted ditto Indirect Primaries. And for the Consensus, the two chambers have produced in this Bill, very clear definition of how a Consensus candidate would emerge.”
“And therefore, we are very glad that we have been able to achieve this Consensus between the two Chambers to arrive at this harmonized version and we are also optimistic that Mr. President will sign the bill.”, Mr Lawan said.
Nigerians, civil society organisations (CSOs), and other stakeholders are expecting President Buhari to assent the bill before the end of January.
