There are strong signs that President Muhammadu Buhari will sign the Electoral Act Amendment Bill today, the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan has actually confirmed.

Lawan, who met President Buhari at the State House, Abuja, on Tuesday, following their resumption for legislative duties after the Christmas break, likewise confirmed that the controversial Electoral Act Amendment Bill will be represented for deliberations on the flooring of the National Assembly on Wednesday.

DAILY POST recalls that the President had actually declined assent to the Electoral Amendment expense over the direct primary stipulation. The Executive had actually hinged its choice to return the costs to the legislature on that particular basis.

While the delays persisted, a union of civil society organisations mounted pressures on the federal government, insisting that time was running out to have an Act that would guide the conduct of next year’s elections.

Asked when the National Assembly means to pass the expense after expunging the primary stipulation and reforward to the presidency, Lawan said, “Well, I smile because that again, by the grace of God tomorrow both chambers, the Senate and your house of Representatives will pass the bill. And I hope that before completion of the week, the expense might be reminded Mr. President for his assent.

“But something I’m sure by the grace of God is we are passing the expense, the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2010, tomorrow Wednesday the 19th in both chambers, and we enjoy that at the end of the day, we have been able to limit our differences and arrive at the very patriotic resolution that our country need to have a new electoral law that will assist the 2023 basic elections in the nation, and Nigeria would have everything to gain from this law.

“For us in the ninth assembly, the Electoral Act change costs is one of our significant legislative agendas that we wanted to handle, and to the magnificence of God Almighty, by tomorrow, we will be able to pass that expense to Mr. President to assent to it. I hope that the cleansing process will not take more than a day. If it does, then it has to be early next week. I’m really positive that there is not much to clean up due to the fact that usually, when we pass a costs like this, it goes to the legislative preparing unit of the National Assembly.

“So what you have in the National Assembly, as passed, is not the last document that comes to the President. And I understand that lots of people were stating there were numerous defects in the bill that was given Mr. President, possibly what they had was the bill passed in the Senate or in your home, not the one that was tidied up, the last file that was tidied up, since even us we didn’t have that file, we sign it up but I appreciate the efforts of all Nigerians in taking interest in what we do, and even taking part by way of looking for what is right and what is not when we pass our bills, or in regards to legislative activities, usually.

“On the whole, I believe it’s a worthwhile exercise that we’ve worked so hard in an extremely bipartisan way to pass the electoral modification bill prior to and Mr. President to raise the observations he did, and for the National Assembly, having actually consulted commonly with Nigerians, with our constituents, and we pertained to the conclusion, in both chambers, across party lines, in an extremely patriotic way to say, oh, what we require to do is not lose time, time is of essence in this respect.

“We need to just take a look at the possibility of opening up the mode of primaries. That you can have direct, you can have indirect and even consensus, and it’s up to political parties to choose which alternative is fine for them, and at what time, however I’m sure that all the alternatives will be used, all the alternatives will be utilized by political parties, in different celebrations or whatever”.