Tajudeen Abbas, speaker of the house of representatives, has reaffirmed President Bola Tinubu commitment to pushing for the 2027 election to be a lot more transparent than the 2023 poll.
Speaking to a team from the European Union on Thursday in Abuja, Abbas stated that the national assembly under the Tinubu administration is presently modifying the Electoral Act 2022 to guarantee legitimacy and openness in next elections.
The green chamber’s presiding officer stated that the upcoming electoral reforms are taking into account the concerns voiced by foreign observers following the 2023 elections.
“I want to acknowledge that the leadership of the country under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, is very committed to ensuring that we improve on our electoral processes, particularly regarding the observations made (by international observers) in the 2023 election,” Abbas said.
“We in the national assembly have also been busy working to gather as many issues as possible, arising from the last elections, so that we can see how we can legislatively address them so that our next election will be more transparent, acceptable and in alignment with international standards.”
According to Abbas, the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives convened last week to settle disagreements on the planned change.
“We agreed that because of some of the amendments that we want to bring forth — some are by way of act of parliament, some are by constitutional amendment, we will fast track and isolate the electoral issues and take them as one, single entity; and push them forward for the national assembly to deliberate and take a position; and then send them to the sub-nationals (state houses of assembly) to also consider them within a short timeframe, between now and December,” he added.
According to Abbas, who stated that the house is “very serious” about the electoral reforms.
Noting that houses of assembly must agree with the national assembly on the reforms, Abbas requested that the EU delegation support the national assembly in advocacy and publicity.
The delegation’s leader and a member of the EU parliament, Barry Andrews, applauded the house for its efforts to strengthen the country’s democracy.
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