Both chambers of the National Assembly have agreed to the adoption of consensus amongst options open to political parties to pick their candidates in the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill 2022.
President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan, made the disclosure on Tuesday at plenary.
Checks revealed that the House of Representatives had in its resolutions last week adopted direct and indirect primaries, as against the Senate which passed three options: Direct, Indirect and Consensus options.
Further investigation revealed that the House of Representatives reviewed its resolution to accommodate consensus.
Consequent on the House of Representatives correspondence to the leadership of Senate, a motion sponsored by Senate Leader, Abdullahi Yahaya, “Rescission on Clause 84 of the Electoral Act No6, 2010 (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and Committal to the Committee of the Whole,” was read on the floor of the Red Chamber to ensure harmonisation.
President of the Senate disclosed that the amendment of Clause 84 became necessary to ensure consensus in the resolutions of the Parliament.
Senator Lawan in his concluding remarks said the lawmakers are now convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari would sign the contentious Bill.
He appealed to political parties to stick to the rules to avoid crises after conduct of primaries.
He said:” What we have done is to give very clear and sufficient definition to each mode of Primaries.
“The two chambers, have given a very clear definition on how consensus candidates will emerge. We are very optimistic that Mr President will sign the Bill. Our desire is to ensure accountability and transparency in the conduct of elections.
“Political parties must follow the law or otherwise they will miss the opportunity of participating in the election.
“This is an important bill as important as the Petroleum Industry Act, it gives Nigerians the opportunity to ensure that their votes count.”
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