INEC Announces 2015 Elections Notice ToAll Parties (See Timetable Below )

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),Wednesday, issued a notice of election to the 25 political parties signifying that the election process is on course, with less than 137 days to the 2015 elections. INEC, had earlier in the year, released the timetable for the election scheduling the conduct of the presidential and National Assembly elections for February 14, 2015, while the governorship and House of Assembly elections were fixed for February 28.As said by the timetable, political parties have between October 2 and end of February 26, 2015, to conduct primaries to choose their candidates and finalise campaigns for the elections. Chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Kayode Idowu, said the release of the notice to the political parties was in compliance with section 30 (1) of the Electoral Act, 2010 as amended which provides not later than 90 days before election.“This is what the Electoral Act says. The notice of election was released to the political parties this morning; this was the timetable we released in January this year,”Kayode disclosed.Meanwhile, INEC’s director of voter education and publicity, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzi, while speaking to correspondents said that the release of the notice of election is a formality by the electoral commission.He however stated that the,“ban on campaign has not been lifted. So political parties are still not allowed to do any campaigns publicly.”According to the timetable, campaigns for presidential and National Assembly elections will commence on 16thNovember 2014 while campaigns for governorship and state House of Assembly elections will start from 30th November, 2014.Kayode however clarified that the guidelines for campaigns is undergoing processing noting that progress is being made in that regard. He noted that INEC and the political parties deliberated on it and the final draft will be out soon.