The House of Representatives on Thursday said it has not received any communication from the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), rejecting the Electoral Act 2010 (Amendment) Bill.

The Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Benjamin Kalu, said this while briefing journalists in Abuja.

 “I want to tell this house (journalists) that if Mr President sends a communication to the House of Representatives, the spokesperson of the House of Representative should be one of the first to know.

“I can tell you with every amount of audacity that there is no communication from Mr President to that effect,” he said.

Hinting on vetoing Buhari on the bill, Kalu said, “I am hoping that by the grace of God, we will be able to make Mr President toe our own line.”

 The House’s spokesman also stated the decision by the National Assembly to restrict political parties to direct primary in selection of candidates for elective public offices “is not self-serving but for the advancement of our democracy.”

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 He said the reason was to “decentralise candidate selection among all the political parties towards breaking the hegemony that has existed before now around that particular issue.”

 “So, the register that is not existing in most political parties will now be one of the pre-conditions that must be in place,” he added.

Kalu also denied that the ruling All Progressives Congress was behind the imposition of direct primary on other political parties.

He said, “With my little knowledge of parliamentary practice, the majority will always carry the vote, the minority will always have their say.

“APC did not insist on it; we are true disciples of democracy and we are trying to set our democracy from where it is to where it ought to be, and there are mechanisms, policies, and legislations that must be in place to be able to move our aspiration to advance our democracy to become one of the best among comity nations; and a piece of legislation to back that up is very important.”