Following controversies raised over President Muhammadu Buhari’s failure to assent to the 2018 Electoral (Amendment) Act, the presidency has made a strong appeal to the leadership of the National Assembly to reconvene.
Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, made the appeal on Sunday, saying the president was not averse to card readers or e-voting system as being speculated in some quarters.
Recall that Buhari declined assent to the amendment Act on the ground that the document contained some ambiguous clauses which needed to be reviewed.
Shehu expressed displeasure on some of the controversies trailing the document and absolved the presidency of any fault.
“We appeal to the National Assembly to reconvene as soon as possible to consider and approve the necessary corrections to the amended Electoral Act,” he stated.
He said the presidency rejects the allegations, especially from the opposition class as well as some newspaper editorial opinions creating the impression that President Muhammadu Buhari is against e-voting, the use of card readers in the upcoming elections, hence his decision to decline assent, for the third time, to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018.
He explained that the president wanted engagement with the parliament for the corrections to be effected so that, at the end of the day, both arms of government will be happy with the fact that a good electoral law is in place.
He said the government wishes to state in clear and unambiguous terms that the issue of e-voting and use of card readers was never an issue for the president’s decision to decline assent to the Bill.
It is equally important that this issue was not raised either by the executive or the legislature in the recent reviews, he noted.
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