1,068 candidates to contest governorship elections, says INEC

The Independent and National Electoral Commission (INEC) says there are 1,068 governorship candidates in 29 states for the general election.

Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, made the disclosure during a consultative meeting with the media in Abuja on Tuesday.

He said the elections will feature a total of 73 presidential candidates and 91 political parties.

Yakubu said the figures are the highest ever recorded in the country’s election history.

The presidential and national assembly elections are scheduled to hold on February 16 while the governorship and state houses of assembly polls will take place on March 2.

Yakubu said there are 1,800 senatorial candidates and 2,600 house of representatives candidates vying to represent the 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies respectively.

He added that a total of 14,000 candidates will also be participating in the various state houses of assembly elections.

He said elections will take place in at least 20,000 locations across the country.

The electoral body chief said there will be simultaneous accreditation and voting and that the voter cards have been configured to be tied to a specific card reader and polling unit.

TheCable had reported that at least 84 million voters are expected to participate in the elections.