TheCable

The Sokoto State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) has fixed January 9 for the conduct of local government election in the state.

Usman Abubakar, chairman of the commission, disclosed this at a news conference on Monday.

He said the notice for the election had been forwarded to the 29 political parties in the state.

“The commission will release the guidelines for the election and its time table on October 15, while it would meet the parties on the polls on October 22,” he said.

”Notification of date of primaries by the political parties to the commisison will be done between October 27 and October 31. Conduct of primaries and submission of party candidates is scheduled between November 1 and November 16.

Abubakar disclosed that the commission would close acceptance of nominations on November 23, while the screening of candidates has been scheduled to hold from November 24 to December 10.

The chairman said the display of names of candidates would be done on December 14, while the political parties would have between December 15 and December 22 to substitute candidates.

”The submission of the party agents will be done between December 23 and December 25, while campaigns will end on January 8,” he said.

”The election will be conducted on January 9 and the commission may likely use card readers for the forthcoming polls. We had since arranged with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in this direction, although this is under probability as the training on its use was yet to be conducted for the adhoc staff.”

The SIEC chairman announced that the state government had since released all the funds needed for the election, although he declined to disclose the amount.

He promised that the election would be free, fair, transparent and credible.