Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, on Thursday declared that the commission is set for the March 9 gubernatorial elections in 29 states.
He spoke Thursday in Abuja at the opening of a meeting of the commission management with the states Resident Electoral Commissioners (REC).
That was hours after declaring President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as winner of the last Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections.
According to him, the meeting among others was to review the elections, the processes and procedures deployed during the last election in a bid to make amends where necessary.
He added that the meeting will also help in finalizing arrangements for the forthcoming governorship and state house of assembly elections.
“Once we conduct the national election, we take stock and review, so that process and procedures are strengthened learning from period of previous elections before we go into state elections,” Yakubu said.
He said that since the RECs were in Abuja with the State Collation Officers (SCO) for the presidential election, it was important for the commission to meet and review the experiences of the last elections with a view to strengthening its processes towards a successful conduct of the state elections on Saturday, March 9.
“The next election is going to hold on Saturday March 9 and this is going to be the governorship in 29 states of the federation. As you are aware, in seven states, the governorship elections are staggered and conducted off season. We have since concluded these elections.
“So, there will be governorship election in 29 states. And in all the states of the federation, there will be state assemblies election and in the FCT where the Area Council election coincides with the general election. We are also conducting election in 68 constituencies and that will be six area council chairmen and 62 councils.
“We have gone very far with the arrangements for the elections, election will hold on March 9 with the election of governor for states as well as members of the state assemblies,” Yakubu said.
The meeting was still going on as at the time of filling this report and resolutions of the meeting are expected to be released afterwards.
