All legal impediments to the 2011 general elections in Nigeria have been cleared with the signing into law of the 2010 Electoral Bill and the release of 87.7 billion Naira for the compilation of a new voters’ register (US$1=150 Naira).
President Goodluck Jonathan signed the bill into law on Friday, repealing the Electoral Act 2006.
Shortly after signing the signing, Finance Minister Olusegun Aganga announced that the government had released the funds required by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to carry out a fresh registration of voters, seen as crucial to the success of the polls.
A major highlight of the new law is that it re-orders the holding of the staggered elections to start with the National Assembly election and then be followed by the presidential election, governorship and state assembly elections. The governorship and state assembly elections will be held on the same day.
It also provides that INEC should conduct all elections between 150 days and not later than 120 days before the swearing in ceremony of elected officers, which means the elections will be held in January 2011.
INEC and some political parties have hailed the passage into law of the Bill, saying it would enable them understudy the law and come up soon with guidelines for the conduct of the 2011 general election.
The Commission had said it could not release the time-table for the elections until the bill was signed into law.
The 2011 elections are widely seen as crucial to the survival of democracy in Africa’s most populous nation, which has a history of failed polls.
The 2007 elections were described by local and international observers as the worst in the country’s history, and the litigation arising from the polls continue in the courts, more than three years later.
President Jonathan has repeatedly stated his administration’s resolve to break from the past and organise free, fair and credible elections next year.