Checkout Magazine has learnt that the controversies over the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2010 will end soon.
This is because the National Assembly will before Saturday, send an amended version of the proposed law to President Muhammadu Buhari for assent.
Senate President Ahmad Lawan disclosed that the bill will be passed today after meeting behind closed doors with Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Recall that the President had in December refused to assent to the bill, citing the direct primary provided for political party primaries to select candidates for elections as his core reason.
Reacting to a question by reporters on when the reworked bill would be sent to Buhari, Lawan said the grey areas had been attended to.
He said: “By the grace of God, tomorrow (today) both chambers, that is the Senate and the House of Representatives, will pass the bill and I hope that before the end of the week, the bill could be sent back to Mr. President for his assent.
“But one thing I’m sure, by the grace of God, is we are passing the bill, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2010, tomorrow(today), Wednesday, the 19, in both chambers.
“We are happy that at the end of the day, we have been able to narrow down our differences and arrived at a very patriotic resolution that our country must have a new electoral law that will guide the 2023 general election and Nigeria would have everything to benefit from this law.
“For us in the ninth Assembly, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill is one of the major legislative agenda that we wanted to deal with and to the glory of God Almighty Allah, by tomorrow (today), we will be able to pass that bill for Mr. President for his assent.
“I hope that the cleaning process will not take more than a day, but if it does, then, it has to be early next week, but I’m very optimistic that there is not much to clean because normally, when we pass a bill like this, it goes to the Legislative Drafting Unit of the National Assembly.
“So, what you have in the National Assembly, as passed, is not the final document that comes to the President.
“I know that many people were saying there were so many flaws in the bill that was brought to Mr. President. Maybe, what they had was the bill passed in the Senate or in the House, not the one that was cleaned up.”
