President Muhammadu Buhari has asked the Senate to amend section 84 (2) subsection 12 in the 2021 Electoral Act.
President Buhari had on February 25 signed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law.
During the signing, he criticised the section, which he said “constitutes a disenfranchisement of serving political office holders.”
Section 84 (12) states that “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”
Buhari in his letter to the Senate insisted that the amendment is necessary as the clause constitutes a fundamental defect and leads to the disenfranchisement of political officeholders.
In his view, the section disenfranchises serving political office holders from voting or being voted for at conventions or congresses of any political party, for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election in cases where it holds earlier than 30 days to the national election.
Buhari argued that the provision introduced qualification and disqualification criteria that ultra vires the Constitution by way of importing blanket restrictions to serving political officeholders.
