The Coalition of United Political
Parties (CUPP) has condemned President Muhammadu Buhari’s rejection of the
Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Imo Ugochinyere, CUPP Publicity
Secretary, in a statement on Tuesday, said the development was deliberate.
On Monday, the Senior Special
Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita
Enang, explained that the president declined assent to the bill due to some
drafting issues.
According to him, one of the
concerns of the president is the period fixed for primaries.
He said the schedule for
primaries provided that it should not be earlier than 120 days and not later
than 90 days to elections.
Enang further said the schedule
would allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) only 9 days to
collate list of candidates among others.
Reacting, the CUPP noted that the
rejection was an indication that the Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC)
government “want to destroy the chances of free and fair election in Nigeria
simply because they are afraid of losing the 2019 general election”.
Ugochinyere declared that the
president and the ruling party were scared of the compulsory use of card
readers for accreditation and transmission of election results which the new
electoral law provides for.
CUPP further urged the National
Assembly to, “use a joint sitting whenever they return from recess to handle
the INEC budget issue and Electoral Act observations and send the clean copy
back to President Buhari so that he will have no excuse to ruin our desire for
credible elections“.
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