The political brinkmanship over the order of the 2019 general elections continues as the National Assembly seeks to amend the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2018 vetoed by President Muhammadu Buhari to placate the governors in a bid to isolate the president.
The new section 25 provides that the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections shall hold first, National Assembly comes second, while the presidential election brings up the rear. The vetoed bill had provided for the National Assembly election to come first, while the governorship and state Houses of Assembly, as well as the presidential ones, come second and last, respectively.
With this amendment, the governors who are not in support of the earlier bill might back the National Assembly against the President. The order of the elections are of no importance to policy formulation or governance, it is just a selfish exercise to ensure victory polls. The calculation is that the result of the first election that takes place will draw a bandwagon effect in favour of the victorious party. This is why being the first election to take place is deemed very important. Normally, it is the presidential election that comes first, why the National Assembly deemed it necessary to amend the processs now is yet to be fully explained.
