Nigeria’s ruling party chief said Thursday President Goodluck Jonathan can run in upcoming elections amid a dispute over whether a candidate from the mainly Muslim north should be chosen instead.
Okwesilieze Nwodo’s comments, however, did not endorse the president.
“Jonathan has the right to contest in the 2011 election,” the People’s Democratic Party chairman said at the opening of a meeting of party officials.
The PDP, in power since the nation returned to democracy in 1999, has an unwritten policy of alternating its backing every two terms between candidates from the north and south.
The policy serves as a way of smoothing over ethnic, religious and social divides in Africa’s most populous nation.
Jonathan, who took over after president Umaru Yar’Adua’s death in May, is a Christian from the south. Some argue a northerner should be chosen since Yar’Adua did not finish out his term.
While he is widely expected to run, Jonathan has not declared his candidacy. Elections are expected as early as January.