Electoral Act: House agrees to Senate version on consensus candidates

The House of Representatives has agreed to the provision for consensus candidates stipulated in Senate version of  the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill 2022 among options open to political parties.

President of the Senate, Ahmad Lawan,  made the disclosure on Tuesday at the resumption of plenary session.

 House of Representatives had last week  adopted direct and indirect primaries, as against the Senate which passed three options: Direct, Indirect and Consensus options.

Lawan disclosed that the amendment of Clause 84 became necessary to ensure consensus in the resolutions of the Parliament.

The Senate President said the lawmakers are now convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari would sign the contentious Bill.

Lawan therefore appealed to political parties to stick to the rules to avoid crises after conduct of primaries.

He said:” What we have done is to give very clear and sufficient definition to each mode of primaries.

“The two chambers, have given very clear definition on how consensus candidate will emerge. We are very optimistic that Mr. President will sign the Bill.  Our desire is to ensure accountability and transparency in the conduct of elections.

“Political parties must follow the law or otherwise they will miss the opportunity of participating in the election.

“This is an important bill as important as the Petroleum Industry Act, it gives Nigerians the opportunity to ensure that their votes count.”

The section 84 reads, “A political party that adopts a consensus candidate shall secure written consent of all cleared aspirants for the position, indicating their voluntary withdrawal from the race and their endorsement for the consensus candidate.”