President Muhammadu Buhari has come under attack for declining to sign into law the Electoral Act Amendment Bill.
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) Publicity Secretary, Imo Ugochinyere, in a statement on Tuesday, said the development was deliberate.
Recall, on Monday, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Sen. Ita Enang, explained that the president declined assent to the bill due to some drafting issues.
He said one of the concerns of the president is the period fixed for primaries.
He said the schedule for primaries provided that it should not be earlier than 120 days and not later than 90 days to elections.
Enang further said the schedule would allow the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) only 9 days to collate list of candidates among others.
Reacting, the CUPP noted that the rejection was an indication that the Buhari led All Progressives Congress (APC) government “want to destroy the chances of free and fair election in Nigeria simply because they are afraid of losing the 2019 general election”.
Ugochinyere declared that the president and the ruling party were scared of the compulsory use of card readers for accreditation and transmission of election results which the new electoral law provides for.
CUPP further urged the National Assembly to, “use a joint sitting whenever they return from recess to handle the INEC budget issue and Electoral Act observations and send the clean copy back to President Buhari so that he will have no excuse to ruin our desire for credible elections“.
