Inec To Conduct 78 Reruns, Seeks Approval For Funds From Buhari, National Assembly

BEVERLY HILLS, January 07, (THEWILL) – INEC To Conduct 78 Reruns, Seeks Approval For Funds From Buhari, National AssemblyFollowing the rulings of the various courts, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has 78 rerun elections to conduct across the country this year, and is planning on meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari and the leadership of the National Assembly on how to finance the elections.

In a statement issued in Abuja yesterday, the commission pointed out that the court verdicts were delivered in November and December of 2015, when the courts directed it to conduct the supplementary elections within 60 or 90 days.

A breakdown of the elections indicates that the commission will conduct 10 Senatorial, 12 State Constituencies and 37 State Assembly supplementary elections.

Others are 17 Federal Constituency elections and two governorship reruns, subject to the verdict of the Supreme Court.

Since the financial implications of the reruns were not captured either in the 2015 or 2016 budget which is still pending before the National Assembly, the INEC Deputy Director of Publicity and Voter Education, Mr. Nick Dazang told the Punch that both the executive and the legislature would assist INEC on the need to provide the needed funds for the court-ordered elections.

According to him, “You know that these elections were ordered by the court and therefore, we have no option but to abide by the judgments.

“We are in a democracy and because of the urgency of the elections, we are sure that both arms of government will listen to us.

“Before now, we have always enjoyed the support of the two arms of government and we also know that this one won't be an exception.”

No date has been fixed for the conduct of the elections but Dazang said the commission would need to abide by the period given to it to conduct the supplementary elections by the courts.

Some of the states, where the reruns will hold include Abia, Adamawa, Akwa-Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Kogi and Nasarawa. Others are Niger, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba states.

Rivers tops the list of the affected states as also the only one where the victories of all the three senators from the state were nullified by the Court of Appeal.

Aside the governorship election which the Appeal Court has ordered that it be rerun, the commission will also conduct elections into 36 other positions, ranging from the Senate, House of Representatives to the State House of Assembly.