Progressive senators will block veto of the electoral bill, says Ashafa

Progressive senators will stand against any plan by the National Assembly to veto President Muhamadu Buhari’s refusal to sign the recent amendments to the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2018, Senator Gbenga Ashafa said at the weekend.

He said the matter will eventually be subjected to vote and that the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has the majority, will frustrate any plan to veto the President.

Ashafa spoke after a stakeholders meeting of the Lagos East chapter of the APC in Epe.

Responding to questions on the next line of action for his colleagues in the Senate following the President’s refusal to assent to the Bill and threats by the National Assembly to veto him, Ashafa said: “I have had the opportunity of looking through the well thought— out reasons adduced by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari for not assenting to the version of the bill which has been forwarded to him and I am quite in agreement with him. “Both the president and the National Assembly have shown good faith in the back and forth game caused principally by drafting inconsistencies that have delayed the bill till now.

“We must all understand that both sides must be dispassionately painstaking to ensuring that there is no loophole in the final result of the proposed amendments, considering the sensitive nature of the Electoral Act and overarching effect of same on National security and stability of the polity.

“It cannot be in tandem with any standard democratic ethos to introduce new rules to the field of politics less than two months to a general election, we must be fair to all concerned.”

Commenting specifically on the possibility of a veto, Ashafa said:  “It is a game of numbers and to conduct a successful veto of the President’s position, the National Assembly would require a vote by two thirds of both houses, I am certain that the progressive block of senators who have already seen reasons with the President would not be in support of such a veto.”

The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) has backed the President for declining to sign the amendment to the Electoral Act.

The party equally faulted a threat by the Coalition of Political parties (CUPP) to boycott the 2019 general election following the President’s refusal to sign the act.

In a statement in Sokoto signed by its National Secretary Abubakar Abdullahi Sokoto, the party posited that there was nothing to worry about President Buhari’s decision.

“The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) is in total support of President Buhari’s decision to withhold (his) accent to the amended Electoral Act.”