The chairman of the Senate Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Senator Kabiru Gaya, has disclosed that the Electoral Act Amendment Bill will be passed by the National Assembly in the second quarter of 2021.
Speaking on a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, Gaya said that the amendment bill is ready, after passing through several processes, adding that what is left is the final passage.
Recall that the passage of the electoral amendment bill has witnessed series of postponements by the ninth National Assembly, with many political stakeholders expressing optimism that the bill will be passed before the conduct of the Anambra State governorship election, scheduled for November 2021.
The amendment bill, which was initially introduced by the eighth National Assembly under the leadership of Bukola Saraki, was declines assent three consecutive times by President Muhammadu Buhari.
When the President declined assent to the bill for the third time in December 2018, he noted that it would create uncertainty for the 2019 elections.
The ninth Senate, however, reintroduced the bill.
Gaya, while speaking on the latest development regarding the bill, noted that the amendment bill will soon be passed and that there will be no further delay.
He said, “I assure you that within this quarter, because we have other processes in the Senate and it is not only the electoral act bill. I’m not the one in control of whether it is passed or so.
“It is the leadership, and the leadership is also committed to getting this bill passed and rest assured that within the second quarter, this bill will be passed. There is no fixing another date.
“Actually, the bill is ready. We also need to get the leadership involved. I know we have other important bills also along the line. We have the PIB, which is very important economically to this nation, and therefore we are also working on that.”
