The Independent National Electoral Commission has broken its silence on a letter written to it by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), over the contentious Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
Buhari, who received the bill on November 19, has until December 19 to sign it or withhold his assent and communicate to the National Assembly his views and comments about it.
And if after 30 days he refuses to sign the bill, and with the National Assembly not in support of the President’s amendments or reservation, the Senate and the House of Representatives can recall the bill and pass it into law.
Should the bill be passed in the form it was sent to the President by two-thirds majority votes in both chambers, the bill automatically becomes a law even without the signature of the President.
But reacting to the President’s letter on Wednesday, INEC National Commissioner and chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said its position constitutionally, legally and administratively was that the electoral management body is the end user of the electoral legal framework.
He said that it was conventionally rational, strategic and fundamental to seek the opinion of the commission and other critical agencies in the electoral matrix before a new legal framework becomes law.
