President Goodluck Jonathan
2011 elections dates :
Party primaries: September 11 to October 30, 2010
National Assembly election: January 15, 2011
Presidential election: January 22, 2011
Governorship/State Assembly elections: Jan 29, 2011
The president made the announcement at a two-hour meeting behind closed doors with governors of the People’s Democratic Party, held at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, shortly after the release of the 2011 elections timetable by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Jonathan met the governors soon after an earlier meeting with PDP national chairman Okwesilieze Nwodo, as part his consultations ahead of the polls.
No official statement was issued at the end of both meetings, but sources in attendance at the meeting with governors said the president told them that since INEC had issued the election timetable, there was no time to waste and so he was joining the presidential race.
Many governors were not at the meeting, and Jigawa State Governor Sule Lamido boycotted it specifically to protest what he called EFCC’s harassment against him over “flimsy” petition, according to a top political source.
The governors were also said to have raised concern over the clampdown on them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over their perceived support for power rotation.
The president has been dawdling in announcing his decision, saying he was in consultation with stakeholders.
His statement yesterday is likely to elicit strong resistance from particularly northern governors, who had said power should move to the North in 2011 in accordance with the PDP’s zoning arrangement.
Earlier yesterday, INEC issued the timetable, showing that the elections will kick off with the National Assembly polls on January 15, followed by the presidential election a week later and governorship and state assembly elections on January 29, 2011.
Based on the timetable, announced by INEC commissioner in charge of information Solomon Soyebi, the political party primaries for the nomination of election candidates will be held from September 11 to October 30, while voters’ registration has been set for November 1 to 14.
After the elections, possible run offs for governorship and presidential elections will be held within seven days after the announcement of the result of the respective elections, Soyebi said, linking the timelines to provisions of the amended constitution and the Electoral Act 2010.
The timetable shows that campaign in public by political parties will commence on October 17 and will end on January 14, 21 and 28 for the three sets of elections respectively.
Registration of voters at the 120,000 polling units across the country will begin on 1st and end on 14th November, during which 70 million prospective voters are expected to be registered.
The voters register will be displayed for claims and objections between 20 and 25 November, while the final voter register is to be published on December 16.
INEC will issue notice of election on October 13 while political parties will collect forms CF001 and CF002 which contains personal particulars of candidates and party’s list of candidates for all elections from October 19 to 22.
Submission of form CF001 which contains affidavit and personal particulars of candidates and form CF002 which has the party’s list of candidates will be from November 15 for National Assembly, 22 for presidential and 29 for governorship/state Houses of Assembly elections, and same will be published on 22 November, 29 November and 6 December respectively.
Parties are expected to submit nomination forms to INEC between 4, 7 and 11 December, for National Assembly, presidential and governorship/state Houses of Assembly elections.
The last day for the withdrawal or substitution of candidates by political parties will be November 30 for the National Assembly, December 7 for presidential and December 14 for governorship/state Houses of Assembly elections.
List of all candidates will be published on 16, 23 and 30 December. Lists of all political party agents are to be submitted to the state resident electoral commissioners on January 8, 21 and 28 for each of the three elections.
Reading out the timetable at a news conference in Abuja, Soyebi said the commission acted “in exercise of the powers coffered on (it) by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, the Electoral Act, 2010 and of all other powers enabling it in that behalf.”
The elections were staggered in accordance with section 25 of the Electoral Act which states that the elections should be held in the following order “a. Senate and House of Representatives; b. Presidential election; and c. State House of Assembly and Governorship election.”
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