The United Progressives Party (UPP) on Tuesday, said President Muhammadu Buhari’s refusal to assent to the electoral bill as amended is a sign of fear. The president had refused to append his signature to the bill, which among other things, aims to change the sequence of the polls. The bill seeks to make the presidential election the last, a shift from the usual where it was the first office to be decided.
The UPP, in a statement, released on Tuesday said the proposed sequence would ensure candidates of various parties win elections based on their personal merit and the popularity of their parties’ manifesto. "His withholding assent to this bill smacks of fear of losing the 2019 Presidential Election as well as the fear of his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) not benefiting from the bandwagon effect of a possible early victory if the presidential election came first.
"If the APC and President Buhari were confident that the record of their performance was impressive as they have often claimed, there should be no reason why this fear should be expressed in the manner of withholding assent to a bill that holds very strong promise to deepen and develop our democracy,” the statement read.
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Politics