INEC fixes date for 2023 elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Wednesday announced the date for the 2023 general elections in the country.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who addressed participants at a one-day public hearing on the National Electoral Offences Commission (Establishment) Bill 2021 organized by the Senate Committee on INEC, said the country’s general elections would begin on February 18, 2023.

However, the INEC chief was silent on which election would take place on that date.

He said the 2023 general elections would take place exactly 660 days from Wednesday.

He said: “By the principle established by the Commission, the 2023 general election will hold on Saturday, February 18, 2023, which is exactly one year, nine months, two weeks and six days or 660 days from today (Wednesday).

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“We hope to release the timetable and schedule of activities for the general election immediately after the Anambra governorship election scheduled to hold on November 6, 2021.

“In order to do so, there should be clarity and certainty about the electoral legal framework to govern the election. We are confident that the National Assembly will do the needful in earnest.”

The INEC chief described the prosecution of election offenders as the most challenging duty undertaken by the commission since its establishment.

Yakubu added: “For instance, since the 2015 general election, 125 cases of electoral offences were filed in various courts out of which 60 convictions have been secured so far, including the most recent one in Akwa Ibom State.

“The commission would like to see more successful in the prosecution of offenders, not just of ballot box snatchers and falsifiers of election results but most importantly their sponsors.”

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