Nigeria sets new date for 2023 elections – Barlaman

Barlamane.com with AFP
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9:25 – 27 February 2022

The Election Commission of Nigeria has set a new date for the general elections of 2023, due to delays in amending the electoral law.

The new text allows for the electronic transmission of results, a development that could improve transparency and help prevent accusations of fraud that have often marred polls in the past. President Muhammadu Buhari, who will leave office next year after two four-year terms, signed the revised election law on Friday, more than seven months after it was passed by the Senate.

The presidential and legislative elections were to be held on February 18, 2023. The Independent National Electoral Commission (Ceni) was scheduled to publish a notice of the elections 360 days before the polling date, but was unable to do so before the new elections were approved. Election law.

“Accordingly, the presidential and National Assembly elections will be held on Saturday, February 25, 2023.This was stated to journalists by Mahmoud Yacobo, President of Ceni.Governors and state assemblies elections will take place two weeks later, on March 11, 2023.“.

The creation of a new electoral calendar will also affect the campaign, which can start 150 days before polling and must stop 24 hours before polls open.

Political negotiations to appoint candidates for the presidential elections have already begun. No candidate has yet emerged to replace Muhammadu Buhari, but the ruling GPC already has several suitors, including the influential former Lagos governor, Paula Tinubu. The country’s Independent Electoral Commission came under heavy criticism after President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election in 2019, with some saying that voting was neither free nor transparent.

Opinion polls in Nigeria have repeatedly been marred by suspicions of fraud since Africa’s most populous country returned to civilian rule in 1999 after decades of military dictatorship.