The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has explained the National Assembly’s decision to reduce the election notice period from 360 days to 300 days.
Speaking at the State House on Wednesday after President Bola Tinubu signed the Electoral Bill into law, the Speaker said the adjustment would help avoid conducting the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections during Ramadan.
He said, “Well, I think the Senate President has said most of the things that we have done yesterday during the amendment exercise. However, there is one area that I’m sure he forgot to mention, and that is the number of days’ notice, which was earlier in the 2022 Act, 360 days.
“Now we have seen the wisdom to reduce it to 300 days, and this will inadvertently translate to holding the presidential and National Assembly elections in January 2027. That will technically avoid conducting elections during the month of Ramadan in 2027, and I think this is another piece of ingenuity that the National Assembly has introduced to avoid voter apathy in the next general election.”
President Tinubu signed the bill into law on Wednesday in the presence of the leadership of the National Assembly, following its passage by lawmakers on Tuesday.
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However, the bill was not passed without controversy. The House of Representatives witnessed a rowdy session on Tuesday as lawmakers disagreed over a motion seeking to rescind the passage of the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, which contained provisions for real-time electronic transmission of results.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Rules and Business, Francis Waive, had moved a motion for the House to rescind its earlier decision on the bill, which was passed on December 23, in line with the Senate’s position on real-time electronic transmission of election results.
When Speaker Tajudeen Abbas put the motion to a voice vote, the “nays” were louder than the “ayes,” but he ruled that the ayes had it.
The ruling triggered protests from lawmakers, who shouted in objection, prompting the Speaker to call for an executive session.
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