By; IYOKPO J. EGBODO, Abuja
The House of Representatives has fixed the order in election to offices in the country, putting that of office of the President as last in any general elections.
This came as House considered and approved report of its Committee on Electoral and Political Party Matters, on a Bill to further amend the Electoral Act of 2010 on Tuesday.
The House in the approval substituted the content of provisions of section 25 of the extant Act, to put the elections in the following order; National Assembly, State Assembly/ Governorship elections, and Presidential election.
INEC recently released timetable for the 2019 general elections, scheduling the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections for Saturday, 16th February, while the Governorship and State Assembly/Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Council elections were fixed for Saturday, 2nd March 2019.
The House also altered section 87(11a) of the extant Act, to outline sequence for the conduct of political parties’ primaries in the order of; (i) State House of Assembly, (ii), National Assembly, (iii) Governorship, and (iv) President, and continuing on (b) that dates for the primaries “shall not be earlier than 120 days and not later than 90 days before the date of elections to the offices.
It introduced a new section 143 has also been introduced to the Act, to give protection to office occupants whose elections may be nullified owing to the process of the primary election that brought them on board.
“Where the nomination of an elected candidate is nullified by the court and notice of appeal against the decision is given within the stipulated period for appeal, the elected candidate shall, not withstanding the contrary decision of the court remain in the office pending the determination of the appeal. If the court determines that the candidate was not validly nominated, the elected candidate, shall not withstanding the contrary decision of the court remain in office within the period an appeal may be filed; and shall not be sanctioned for the benefits he derived while in office pursuant to this section”, the new section 143 read.
There also provision that where a nominated candidate of a political party dies before, or withdraws from the race, his/her political party shall, within seven days, conduct a fresh primary to replace such a candidate.
