President Muhammadu Buhari has written to the Senate to amend the newly-signed Electoral Act 2022.
The President in a letter addressed to the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and read at the plenary on Tuesday, asked the lawmakers to consider the outright deletion of Section 84 (12).
President Buhari stated that the provision amounted to the disenfranchisement of political appointees.
Trixx NG recalls that President Buhari while signing the Electoral Bill into law, had highlighted the need to amend the section, which contravenes the rights of political office holders to vote, or be voted for in political party conventions and congresses.
Quoting the section, “84(12) 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”, the President noted it had 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.
Following the approval of the bill last week, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) updated the schedule of activities for the general election, giving political parties between April 4 and June 3, 2022 to conduct primaries.
This means that political appointees seeking election must resign before June 3 — when INEC expects that all issues on party primaries must have been resolved.