The house of representatives has agreed with the senate on a clause providing for the consensus candidate option for political parties.
When both chambers of the national assembly revisited the electoral act amendment bill last week, the house had approved indirect and direct primaries for picking party candidates, while the senate included the consensus candidate option.
In the first harmonised version of the revised harmonised bill seen by TheCable, the consensus candidate option was excluded.
But while passing another harmonised version of the bill on Tuesday after a motion was sponsored by Abdullahi Yahaya, senate leader, the lower legislative chamber agreed with the upper legislative chamber on having the consensus candidate option.
Yahaya said the decision to revisit the bill was because there were “some fundamental issues which require fresh legislative action by both chambers of the national assembly emerged on the clause”. (The Cable)