Buhari gets electoral bill this week — Senate

Strong indication emerged Thursday night that President Muhammadu Buhari will receive 2010 Electoral Act ( Amendment ) Bill 2021 passed by the National Assembly last week, by Friday or Saturday this week.

Making the disclosure at an interactive session with journalists, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Kabiru Gaya (APC Kano South), said, “The Electoral Act Amendment Bill would be transmitted to the President Muhammadu Buhari for assent this week.”

He added that the President will assent to the bill despite opposition from some quarters against direct primaries recommended for all political parties in the Bill.

“I believe that direct primary is taking democracy to the grassroots. That is what President Buhari always talk about. It will allow people who are card carrying members of the party decide who should be their candidate. We are happy with it and we believe that President Buhari will sign the bill very soon.

“‘The National Assembly will transmit the bill to the President this week for assent and we expect that he will sign it into law by the grace of God”, he said.

Gaya assured that the faulty Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BIVAS) machines deployed for the Anambra State election would be replaced before the 2023 General Elections.

He expressed surprise that the machines malfunctioned at the Anambra governorship election after they worked perfectly during demonstration at the National Assembly.

He said, “We have agreed to try the machines in other elections coming up in 2022 so as to determine their functionality before the 2023 Eeneral Elections.

“We still have the Ekiti and Osun elections coming up. However, INEC is already working on the solution so that we would not have problems in 2023.

“I will not agree that it is a case of sabotage because it is an electronic device that could fail but we already have provisions for spare. If a machine fails, a new one would be brought in.

“It is even good that it happened in the Anambra governorship election. If it had happened at the general elections, it would have been a catastrophe.”