Mahmoud Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) assured on Monday that all duly registered voters will collect their Permanent Voters’ Cards before the commencement of the 2019 elections scheduled to commence on February 16, for the Presidential and National Assembly elections and March 2, 2019 for the Governorship and State House of Assembly polls.
Yakubu also assured that the Commission will clean the voter register before the start of elections, apparently reacting to wide concerns on the large numbers of under-age voters who participated at the recently held Kano and Katsina state local government elections.
Yakubu was speaking at the quarterly consultative meeting with the media in Abuja where he signaled the Commission is unruffled by the National Assembly members re-ordering its earlier announced election sequence through the amendment of the existing electoral law, Electoral Act 2010.
The amendment approves a new sequence of election in which Presidential Election is to be held last while National Assembly Election comes first. In between the two elections are the
governorship and State Houses of Assembly polls. If President Buhari assents to the bill, this will be the first time since 1999 thatgeneral elections would be conducted in three phases.
The new sequence by the apex legislative chamber is a sharp contrast from the timetable and schedule of activities earlier released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) which fixed the Presidential and National Assembly elections for February 16, 2019 as well as the governorship and house of assembly poll for March 2, 2019.
But in a reaction to a question on whether INEC would consider going to court to challenge the law if the president finally signs the bill, Yakubu said, “As far as the Act is today, we are working with the provisions there and also the Constitution. At the moment, there is no legal lacuna, but if there is any amendment, we will look at and take it up from there.”
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja
