President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday wrote to the National Assembly to give reasons for withholding his assent to the Electoral Act Amendment bill, 2021.
The letter followed the expiration of deadline for presidential assent to the bill last Friday.
Buhari cited several reasons, he could not assent to the bill, among which he said was the high cost of monitoring direct primary elections.
He cited insecurity in the country as reasons too, stating that it will be too much of a risk to expose people, adding that in the course of doing that there would be breach of citizen’s fundamental human rights.
According to him, smaller political parties would also be marginalised participation in the primary election as they lack capacity and structure to do so
Before, declining his assent, he said he has consulted widely, insisting that the current realities will not permit him to assent to the bill.
The president said that it would be better to allow each political party to determine its mode of selecting candidates for election.
