Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that the country’s next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held in February 2019.
The early release of the election date was to “to allow for proper planning by the commission, political parties, security agencies, candidates and all stakeholders,” INEC said on Thursday.
The presidential and national assembly elections will be held on Saturday, February 16, 2019, while regional and local elections to elect new governors and local assembly members will be on Saturday, March 2, 2019.
Per Nigeria’s constitution elections must be held in the closing months of the president’s term, within a period not earlier than 150 days and not later than 30 days before it officially ends.
Muhammadu Buhari won the last elections held in March 2015 on the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) defeating sitting president Goodluck Jonathan of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
That was the first time in the country’s history that that an opposition candidate had won at the ballot box against an incumbent head of state.
Buhari took office on May 29, 2015.
Meanwhile, Buhari has vowed to reward people who will strive for him to be successfully in his re-election bid as his main challenger Atiku Abubakar signed a pact committing to peaceful elections.
“Earlier today, I appended my signature to the Peace Accord,” he said wrote on Twitter late Wednesday.
Speaking at an Election Security Management Workshop on Thursday in Abuja, Nigeria’s Inspector-General of Police Ibrahim Idris called for collaboration among sister security agencies in the country ahead of the 2019 general elections.
Source: Africafeeds.com
