The National Assembly has passed a harmonized version of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill that includes the direct, indirect and consensus primary modes of nominating candidates by political parties for elections.
The harmonized version, passed by the lawmakers during Tuesday’s plenary, is the final agreed version between the Senate and House of Representatives, on the amendment to Clause 84 of the bill, Channels TV reports.
The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, who presided over the plenary, stated that both chambers have agreed to give a clear and sufficient definition for each mode of primaries, and how they would be conducted.
He explained that for the consensus method, the two chambers have produced a very clear definition of how a consensus candidate would emerge.
“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,” said the Senate President.
“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 a very clear and sufficient definition to each mode of primaries.
Read also: National Assembly okays Electoral amendment Act, electronic transmission of results
“The direct primaries are 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.”
“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.”
Before the bill was passed, the Senate Leader, Yahaya Abdullahi, had drawn the attention of his colleagues to the Rescission on Clause 84 of the Electoral Act No. 6 2010 (Amendment) Bill, 2022, and committal to the Committee of the Whole.
Thereafter, the lawmakers resolved to rescind the decision on the affected clause of the bill as passed earlier, and re-commit same to the Committee of the Whole for reconsideration and passage.
