President Muhammau Buhari will be facing battle from 78 other presidential candidates in the 2019 elections who will be seeking to ensure that he does not return to Aso Rock, the country’s seat of power in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Even though President Buhari, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), will be facing a motley crowd of candidates from many largely unknown parties, his main challenger for the position remains former vice president Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who is increasingly being tipped to win the 2019 elections.
Mahmoud Yakubu, chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) told journalists in Abuja on October 26 that that 79 candidates have been nominated by their respective political parties to contest for the Presidency in 2019, the highest number of candidates for the country’s topmost political position ever.
Other prominent presidential candidates are; Donald Duke, SDP, Obiagheli Ezekwisili, Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), Chris Okotie, Fresh Democratic Party (FDP), Kingsley Moughalu, Young People’s Party(YPP), Usman Muhammad, Labour Party(LP), Obadiah Mailafia, African Democratic Congress (ADC)Hamza Almustapha, Peoples Redemption Party(PRP), Hamisu San-Turaki, Mega Party of Nigeria. However, their chances to pose a major challenge in the elections are slim because they lack the financial muscle and do not have the national spread to compete effectively, political observers say.
Furthermore, 1,803 candidates have been fielded for Senate elections, while 4,548 are nominated for the House of Representatives.
According to the INEC Chairman, the submission of names of candidates for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections is ongoing and will end on November 2, while particulars of such candidates will be published one week after, at the commission’s offices in all the states and constituencies.
On the preparedness of the INEC 112 days to the general elections, Yakubu disclosed that the commission will take delivery of smart card readers, sensitive materials; ballot boxes, voting cubicles, permanent voter cards and other components for the enhancement of the smart card readers in the first week of December, as the contract was awarded while the passage of the budget was being awaited.
He also revealed that electronic voting would not be possible in 2019 because of the time frame, even though INEC would implement many of the provisions of the Electoral bill recently passed by the National Assembly, if signed into law by President Buhari.
The INEC chairman affirmed that, “many of the new provisions in the bill passed by the National Assembly were actually part of the recommendations from the commission. In our discussion with the National Assembly, we have been privy to some of the provisions in the draft bills and we took proactive steps.
“We took some of the bill provisions and assumed a position if eventually these provisions are passed.
“Most of the provisions in the bill are things that we can immediately implement but there are provisions that we cannot implement simply because of time. For instance, full blown electronic voting is impossible to implement.
“As for the procurement processes, we have already initiated action. We have been consistent with the Public Procurement Act and awarded the contract for the procurement that we needed to make, basically the sensitive materials, ballot boxes, smart card readers, the permanent voter cards, cubicles and components for the enhancement of the smart card reader.
“Our hope is that by the first week of December, all these components will be delivered to the commission”, he said.
Yakubu said as part of the ongoing preparations for the 2019 general elections, the register of voters in each polling unit would be displayed at the polling units nationwide for week from November 6 – 12 for claims and objections by citizens in accordance with the provision of Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010(as amended).
He also announced that INEC would conduct bye elections into Toro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, Kankia/Kusada/Ingawa Federal Constituency of Katsina State, following the election of the former holders of the seats into Senate in August, and in Ikom II State Constituency of Cross River State, due to the death of the occupant on November 17.
