Assent of Electoral Act: Uncertainty trails 2011 elections
Written by Taiwo Adisa, Abuja Wednesday, 18 August 2010
A fresh cloud hangs over the 2011 elections, following the inability of President Goodluck Jonathan to assent the amended electoral law.
The National Assembly had passed the amendment to the 2006 Electoral Act, following the decision to remove some items from the 1999 Constitution and place them in the act.
But the president has been unable to assent the new electoral bill because of the uncertainty over the amendment of the constitution.
It was gathered that the development was putting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) into a quandary as the commission remained in the dark as to which electoral laws it should use as guide.
The National Assembly orchestrated the confusion when it refused to take copies of the amended constitution to President Jonathan for assent.
Some lawyers and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have slammed suits on the legislature, claiming that the constitution could not become operational without presidential assent.
The National Assembly, however, insisted that the constitution did not state that the amended copy should be signed by the president, as the two chambers had passed motions seeking to gazette the new constitution, called the First Amendment to the 1999 Constitution.
But it was gathered that the Supreme Court, which should make the new law operational had also been reluctant, because the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice had said the amendment must be assented to by the president before it could become law.
"The president cannot sign the Electoral Act because he does not want to sign an illegal bill. Most of the items in the new electoral law are incumbent on constitution amendment and if we cannot say categorically if the constitution has been amended, then it would be illegal for the president to sign the electoral law. It's a dicey situation," a source said on Tuesday.
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Tribune
Rep accuses Jonathan of delaying INEC budget
Written by Idowu Samuel, Abuja Wednesday, 18 August 2010
The House of Representatives is not at peace with President Goodluck Jonathan on the state of inaction in the nation's politics, as the opposition group in the House blamed the president for the turn of events.
The House Minority Leader, Honourable Muhammed Ali Ndume, echoed the feeling of his colleagues on the state of politics in Nigeria, as he addressed the media to query the president on his ability to assent the Electoral Bill 2010 pending before him into law.
Against this back-ground, the lawmaker told the House of Represen-tatives correspondents that the House would give the president the next 30 days to sign the Supplementary Appropriation Bill into law, failing which he stressed that the National Assem-bly would recon-vene to veto the bill.
The opposition leader accused Jonathan of handling three key bills, including the 2010 supplementary bill for Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) new Voter Register, 2010 Supple-mentary Bill for Increased Workers' Salaries, and the 2010 Appropriation (Amendment) Bill with levity.
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ALUKO COMMENTARY
The stubborn National Assembly is therefore in a Catch-22 situation on this matter: the President won't sign the Electoral Law 2010 without being sure that the Constitutional endments are legal without his signature - and on that he is not certain, and some of us agree with him.
This is NOT the issue for the National Assembly to butt heads with the President over and test this constitutional matter. It is not a wise choice - unless they have a "hidden agenda"
Anyway, time is ticking, and the way this matter is going, I would advise Prof. Jega to:
* set a new deadline for the Executive and the Legislature to sort out their mess (his old deadline of Augus 11 is past); otherwise, he should
* just state that he will be operating the 2006 timeframe, with elections in April 2010, otherwise
* he should resign - or threaten to resign his office, arguing that he is being harmstrung.
Yep. Resign. He should not allow these persons to mess up his integrity over a mere N88 billioni, or to mess around with the People.
Bolaji Aluko
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