Femi Falana, human rights lawyer,
has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to “urgently” sign the new electoral act
amendment bill into law.
He said the bill should be signed
now to avoid altering the arrangements for 2019 elections, in accordance to the
ECOWAS protocol on democracy and good governance act.
The national assembly had first
amended the electoral act but it was rejected by Buhari due to “provisions
inconsistent with the 1999 constitution”.
The lawmakers then expunged the
said provisions and passed a new bill, which has been transmitted to Buhari for
assent.
Falana said the new bill should
be promptly signed into law in view of the fact that the Independent National
Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that the 2019 elections will commence
in February 2019.
He said: “In making this call the
attention of the president ought to be drawn to article 2 (1) of the Economic
Community of West African States Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good
Governance which provides that: ‘No substantial modification shall be made to
the electoral laws in the last six (6) months before the elections, except with
the consent of majority of political actors’.”
He cited an example with the case
of Congress of Democracy and Progress v Republic of Burkina Faso where the
Ecowas Court ruled that “all the member states of the ECOWAS are bound by the
provisions of the protocol on democracy and good governance”.
“Since the modification made to
the 2010 Electoral Act is substantia, the bill cannot be passed in less than
six months to the 2019 general election,” Falana added.
“Since Nigeria is legally obliged
to comply with the said Protocol, President Buhari who is the current chairman
of the ECOWAS should ensure that the Electoral Bill 2018 is assented to without
any further delay.”
Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
Advertise on NigerianEye.com to reach thousands of our daily users
No comments
Post a Comment
Kindly drop a comment below.
(Comments are moderated. Clean comments will be approved immediately)
Advert Enquires - Reach out to us at NigerianEye@gmail.com