Nigeria prepare for 2019 election
433 Days to Go: Countdown to Presidential Election
Nigeria’s electoral umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released dates for the forthcoming 2019 general election.
In the schedule, elections for Presidential and National Assembly will hold on February 16, 2019 while elections for Governorship, State Assembly and Area Council will hold on March 2, 2019.
Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said the need to announce date, more than one year head of the election was to get critical stakeholders to prepare adequately for it.
Yakubu said, “All participants at this retreat should be aware that from today, the 2019 general elections to begin with the Presidential and National Assembly Elections on 16th February 2019 are exactly 434 days away.
“These will be followed by the Governorship, State and Areas, State Assembly and Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory on 2nd March 2019”.
This Day newspaper reported the INEC boss as saying that, about 3,630,529 new voters had been registered, while the exercise will continue until 60 days to the general elections in 2019 lamenting that, the management and the low rate of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) collection.
“About 67 political parties are indicating interest to contest in the 2019 general elections, while the commission had received more than 120 applications from political associations seeking registration as political parties”
Although Nigeria is a multi-party state, the 2019 general election is going to be a tug-of-war game between the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Political activities, including voters-buy-in and political horse-trading are on the increase in the recent times in Nigeria. Today, the major opposition party held its National Convention in Abuja to elect party’s national leaders who will lead the party to the election in 2019.