UPP to NASS: Veto Election Reordering Bill
The United Progressive Party (UPP) has expressed disappointment with President Buhari over his failure to sign the Election reordering Bill, calling on National Assembly to veto the President.
According to a statement by the National Chairman of the party, Chekwas Okorie, on Tuesday in Abuja, the party stated that the President’s resolve to decline assent to the Electoral Bill transmitted to him by the National Assembly mainly because of his disagreement with the order of elections which put presidential election last defies all logic.
He said, “his withholding assent to this bill smacks of fear of losing the 2019 Presidential Election as well as the fear of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) not benefitting from the bandwagon effect of a possible early victory if the presidential election came first.
“The order of election as contained in the electoral bill will not only guarantee a sustained mass participation in the elections until the presidential election is conducted. It will also ensure that candidates of various political parties will win elections essentially
on their personal merit and the popularity of the manifesto of their political parties which will be canvassed in the campaigns leading to the elections.
“If the APC and President Buhari were confident that the record of their performance was impressive as they have often claimed, there should be no reason why this fear should be expressed in the manner of withholding assent to a bill that holds very strong promise to deepen and develop our democracy” he stated.
The Bill for the reordering of the election was introduced into the amendment of the electoral act by the House of Representatives. The Bill was also adopted by the Senate and the conference committee by both chambers.
Attempts by Senators Omo Agege and Abdullahi Adamu of Edo and Nassarawa states to kill the Bill earned them the wrath of the senators ultimately leading to the removal of Adamu as the leader of the Northern Senators Forum.
