The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has
fixed Saturday February 16 for the conduct of the 2019 Presidential Elections.
The Commission also
said the Governorship/State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory Area Council
Elections will hold on Saturday March 2, 2019.
National Commissioner
in charge of South-West, Prince Solomon Soyebi who briefed newsmen on the
outcome of the Commission’s meeting yesterday said the decision was taken in
order to ensure certainty in election dates and allow for proper planning.
“Our democracy is
maturing and the Commission believes that there should certainty with regards
to timetable for elections.
For instance, in the United States, general
elections always hold on the second Tuesday of November in the election year.
In Ghana, it’s the 7th of December of the election year while in other places
like Mexico, Norway, Sweden, Coasta Rica and Swithzerland, the dates are also
known in advance”, Soyebi said.
This is the first
time INEC is announcing dates for general elections about two years before the
election year.
In 2007 INEC under
the chairmanship of Professor Maurice Iwu released a final time-table for the
general elections in October 2006. The time-table provided for the conduct of
Presidential election on April 21, 2007 while governorship and State House of
Assembly election was held a week earlier on April 14 of the same year.
In the same
vein the time table for 2015 presidential and the National Assembly
elections was released by INEC under the chairmanship of Professor
Attahiru Jega on January 24, 2015 indicating that polls would hold on February
14, 2015.
The timetable also scheduled the governorship and State House of
Assemblies Elections for 20th February, 2015.
The Nigerian
Constitution provides for elections to hold not earlier than 150 days and not
later than 30 days to the end of the incumbent’s tenure.
Asked whether the
early release of timetable for 2019 elections would not heat up the polity,
Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi told our reporter that
it was rather intended to put every stakeholder on notice so that all issues
bordering on the 2019 general elections would be properly addressed.
“It will certainly
not heat up the polity. I think INEC should even be commended for taking this
bold step. Don’t forget the 2019 elections are less than 500 working days
away”, Oyekanmi said.
Meanwhile the
Commission said it has suspended 23 Electoral Officers who were indicted of
bribery allegations following the conduct of the Rivers rerun parliamentary
elections.
Soyebi said the
decision was sequel to INEC’s receipt of a report from the director of Public
Prosecutions of the Federation confirming that 23 Electoral Officers indicted
over investigation into the December 10 Rivers rerun elections have been
charged to court.
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