The House of Representatives yesterday changed the order of 2019 general elections’ time table earlier released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The change came almost a year
after INEC released the time-table for the 2019 general elections.
With the amendment, the National
Assembly election is to hold first, followed by gubernatorial and state
assembly polls and presidential election to be conducted last.
The amendment was made at the
Committee of the whole House, presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr Yussuff
Lasun.
The lawmakers amended the Act
while considering the report of the House Committee on Electoral Matters which
proposed amendment of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).
In the time-table released by
INEC, Presidential and National Assembly elections were to hold first, while
governorship and state assembly would follow.
The House amended section 25 of
the Principal Act and substituted it with a new section 25 (1).
According to the section, the
elections shall be held in the following order: (a) National Assembly election
(b) State Houses of Assembly and Governorship elections (c) Presidential
election.
Similarly, section 87 was amended
by adding a new section 87 (11) with a marginal note “time for primaries of
political parties”.
“The primaries of political
parties shall follow the following sequence (i) State House of Assembly (ii)
National Assembly (iii) Governorship, and (iv), President.
“The dates for the above stated
primaries shall not be held earlier than 120 days and not later than 90 days
before the date of elections to the offices.”
The House also amended section 36
to allow running mate of candidate that dies before the conclusion of elections
inherit his votes and continue with the process.
Section 35 which states that if
before an election a candidate dies, he will be replaced by the next contestant
with the highest vote was also amended.
The amendment indicated that if a
nominated candidate died in the election process, the next person from the same
political party with the second highest votes in the primary election should
replace the deceased.
It stated that the name of the
new person should be submitted to INEC, which should accept such replacement as
if the deceased was alive.
The House also made an increment
in the limitation of election expenses to be incurred by candidates for
presidential candidates from N1 billion to N5 billion.
It raised the governorship bill
from N200 million to N1 billion, while Senatorial and Representatives
candidates’ expenses are not to exceed N100 million and N70 million,
respectively.
For State Assembly and local
government chairmanship elections, candidates’ expenses had been raised from
N10 million to N30 million.
Similarly, individual
contribution had been jerked up from N1 million to N10 million.
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