2019: NASS transmits Electoral Act ( Amendment) Bill to Buhari

Ahead of the 2019 general elections, the National Assembly has transmitted for assent by President Muhammadu Buhari, a fresh version of the 2010 Electoral Act ( Amendment ) Bill 2018 passed by both chambers last month.
The transmission, according to a reliable source in the Senate, was done last week Monday, the 25th of June, 2018.
The amendment bill, if signed into law by President Buhari , will be known as 2018 Electoral Act, provisions of which will serve as guidelines for conduct of the 2019 general elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission ( INEC).
This is coming three months after the rejection of an earlier one forwarded to the President for assent.
President Buhari, had, in vetoing the earlier one sent to him in February this year, cited three different reasons for doing so, one of which was the new sequence of elections included in the bill, through section 25(1).
Rejecting the former version, the President said the inserted section in the electoral act violates the provisions of section 72 of the 1999 constitution which empowers the INEC to fix dates of elections and see to its conduct in all ramifications.
But both chambers of the National Assembly in the new bill, deleted all the controversial provisions.
Presenting report on the new bill at plenary last month, Chairman of the Committee on Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Senator Suleiman Nazif (APC: Bauchi North), informed lawmakers that the Bill was re-introduced following President Buhari’s decision to withhold assent to the Bill due to the following observations:
That the amendment to the sequence of the elections in Section 25 of the Principal Act may infringe on the constitutionally guaranteed discretion of INEC to organize, undertake and supervise all elections in Section 15 (a) of the Third Schedule of the Constitution;
That the amendment to Section 138 of the Principal Act to delete 2 crucial grounds upon which an election may be challenged by candidates unduly limits the rights of candidates in elections to a free and fair electoral review process; and that the amendment to Section 152 (3)- (5) of the Principal Act may raise constitutional issues over the competence of the National Assembly to legislate over Local Government elections.
In line with aforementioned observations, Sen. Nazif explained that the Committee resolved to:
Delete Sections 25 and 152 (3)-(5) in the proposed Bill based on the President’s observations;Retain Section 138 (c) and (d) as contained in the Principal Act; Further amend Section 49 by including a new subsection (3) which provides that “ Where a Smart Card Reader deployed for accreditation of voters fails to function in any unit and a new card reader is not deployed, the election in that unit shall be cancelled and another election shall be scheduled within 24 hours” and;
Amend Section 140 to include a new subsection (c) which states that; “Where the election is postponed due to omission of a political party’s name or logo, the Commission’s Officer responsible for such printing of party names or logos commits an offence and is liable to a fine of Two Million Naira (N2, 000,000) or imprisonment for 2 years or both.”