Senate bows to pressure discards compulsory direct primary from electoral bill

By our reporter/ The Senate on Wednesday discarded clause 87 of the electoral act amendment bill which provides for a compulsory direct primary poll for all political parties in the country.

Compulsory direct primaries for political parties and electronic transmission of election results are among the amendments proposed by the national assembly.

But following the rejection of the bill by President Muhammadu Buhari last December and pressure from Nigerians and stakeholders, Abdullahi Yahaya, senate leader, on Wednesday sponsored a motion during plenary to have the controversial section deleted from the bill.

While rejecting the bill, President Muhammadu Buhari said adopting compulsory direct primaries “violates the spirit of democracy”.

Moving the motion, Yahaya said order 87(c) of the senate standing orders, 2022 (as amended), and order 1(b) and 52(6) of the same orders allows the upper legislative chamber to revisit its decisions.

“That the senate rescind its decision on the affected clause of the bill as passed and recommit the same to the committee of the whole for consideration,” he said.

In the “committee of the whole”, the senate adopted clause 84 which reads: “A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this act shall hold direct or indirect primaries for aspirants to all elective positions, which may be monitored by the commission.”

Senators unanimously adopted the recommendations of the motion.

The bill is expected to be sent back to President Buhari after reconciliation with the house of representatives.