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Buhari writes Senate to amend section of Electoral Act seeking public officials to resign before election

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President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday wrote to the Senate seeking the lawmakers to take another look at Section 84 of the Electoral Act which he recently signed into law.

The said section directs public officials seeking elective offices in elections to resign their positions ahead of the election.

In the letter addressed to the Senate and read by its President, Ahmad Lawan at plenary, Buhari asked the lawmakers to consider the outright deletion of Section 84 (12) from the Act which has to do with the resignation of political appointees before party primaries.

Buhari’s letter to the Federal lawmakers specifically seeks the National Assembly to urgently amend the section of the Act which states that “no political appointee 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 any candidate for an election.”

In the letter, Buhari said the amendment became necessary as the “clause constitutes a fundamental defect and could lead to the disenfranchisement of political office holders.”

READ ALSO: Signing of Electoral Act Amendment Bill step to electoral sanity— Saraki

While signing the contentious Electoral Act Amendment Bill into law on February 25, Buhari had expressed his dissatisfaction with the particular clause which he felt would disenfranchise political office holders from voting and to be voted for.

He had said the provision contained in the newly signed Act “constituted a fundamental defect as it conflicts with extant constitutional provisions.”

According to the President, the section which barred 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, would disenfranchise them.

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