2023: Buhari’s Refusal to Sign Electoral Bill Better for Presidential Aspirants, Says Bauchi Gov

Deji Elumoye in Abuja

 
Bauchi State Governor and presidential aspirant on the platform of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Bala Mohammed, has said the refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to assent to the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2022, is better for presidential aspirants like him.

According to him, the process of amending the Electoral Act did not start on time and signing now might go against the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) guidelines for elections.
Mohammed spoke Wednesday while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after leading a delegation on a thank-you visit to President Buhari for inaugurating a N23.5 billion World Bank Assisted Upgraded Bauchi Township Water Supply Scheme.
Asked how he felt with the president not signing the amended electoral bill, the former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister said: “Well, I’m a realist. I believe that the Electoral Act is a product of legislative process and that has been done and it was not done earlier and then we have a timeline and guideline of INEC, so we’ll have to manage it. 
“I think the less the merrier as somebody who is in the race. Well, I have less delegates to go and woo. It is better for me than all these 4,000, 5,000 delegates. Anyway, that is my take.”
Some political parties had of recent pressured President Buhari to assent to the amendment to current Section 84 (8), which provides that delegates to vote at the indirect primaries and national convention of political parties to elect candidates for elections shall be those democratically elected for that purpose only.

The implication is that statutory delegates, such as elected political office holders, political appointees and executive officers of political parties are not eligible to vote at primaries to nominate candidates for the 2023 general election.
The new Section 84 has in effect drastically pruned the number of delegates for parties’ indirect primaries and reduced the financial implications of delegate elections.
Details later…