INEC takes a plunge…. announces holding dates for 2011 election
INEC
Amid speculation that the general election scheduled for next year January may turn out to be a sham following very weak preparations, the Independent Electoral Commission has announced the nation will hold presidential elections on January 22, 2011.
National electoral commission announced on Tuesday, even tough there had been intense speculation over when the right timing for voting and even whether the election would go ahead as scheduled.
Spokesman Solomon Adedeji Soyebi said on Tuesday that national assembly elections would be held January 15, while governorship and state assembly ballots were set for January 29.
There had been serious doubt follow many months of the electoral ammendment delay part of which was assented to only recently.
Tuesday’s announcement however has pushed President Goodluck Jonathan to a corner as his silence over his candidature for the ruling party has created unnecessary speculation and unwarranted suspense as both may serve to his disadvange as other candidates are already mapping out strategies for their campaign.
The president recently announced Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Alhaji Dalhatu Tafida as the Director of his election campaign, a move many has taken as indirect declaration of his electoral position as beinng very keen to be a candidate for the ruling party, the National Democratic Party.
There is deep disagreement within his ruling Peoples Democratic Party over whether it should abandon Jonathan, a southern Christian, in favour of a candidate from the country’s mainly Muslim north.
The electoral commission faces a monumental task in preparing a new voter list for Africa’s most populous nation ahead of the January election, which was pushed forward from April through a constitutional amendment.
Voter lists in 2007 elections were riddled with false entries, and the election was widely viewed as marred by rigging and violence.
The constitutional changes pushing the election dates forward have also sparked debate over whether the president has to sign off on them.
Soyebi did not address those issues on Tuesday and instead simply read off the list of dates to reporters. He took no questions.
” Elections dates at a glance:
*national assembly elections, 15th January 2011; *presidential elections, 22nd January 2011;* governorship/state assembly elections, 29th January 2011.
Related Posts
Short URL: http://www.emnnews.com/?p=6186
Posted by 
