EXCLUSIVE: National Assembly may rework Electoral Act ahead presidential primaries

The National Assembly may reconvene urgently to amend the recently-passed Electoral Act if governors, senators and other statutory delegates are to participate in the parties’ presidential primaries slated for this month-end, WesternPost can report today.

This has become imperative as it emerged that the extant amendment done by the lawmakers has inadvertently left out the statutory delegates.

To be badly affected if the situation remains the same will be the All Progressives Congress and Peoples Democratic Party who parade the bulk of these ad-hoc delegates.

As it stands at present, if the officers vote in the primaries at the end of the month, such primary elections will be rendered invalid as it will run contrary to the constitution.

According to authoritative sources, the National Assembly mistakenly deleted the words “in addition to” which had added the statutory delegates to the elected delegates to form the electors at the parties’ convention.

This now runs contrary to the provisions of the country’s constitution which sees only elected delegates from the local governments to the national convention in addition to the ad-hoc delegates as those to pick presidential candidates of the various parties.

This has now constituted a major headache for the political parties.

WesternPost learnt the matter also came up during the meeting of the APC Governors with their new Chairman, Senator Abdullahi Adamu, on Sunday in Abuja.

The governors were left aghast when the party’s National Legal Adviser informed them of this lacuna and its huge implications.

But it was also discovered that the error was inadvertent on the part of the National Assembly members.

“It’s not as scary as it appears. It will be resolved. The lawmakers may have to reconvene to correct the error insert the required words and present to President Buhari to sign again.

“It’s as simple as that. But time is of essence because the primaries are some three weeks away,” said one governor who pleaded not to be mentioned.