2019: Presidential Nomination Forms To Cost N10 Million

Following the amendment of the electoral act by the senate, news reports have it  that the form for any presidential aspirant ahead of the 2019 elections will now be set at N10 million naira for all political parties.  This was made known after the eighth senate passed the Electoral Act No 6 2010 (Amendment) Bill 2017 on March 30, 2017, and the bill is aimed at instituting reforms in the electoral process by making it more free, fair and credible.

The new provision in the Electoral Act will see governorship aspirant paying N5million for nomination form, senatorial aspirants purchasing nomination forms for N2million and House of Representative hopeful for N1million.

Councillor-ship aspirants inward will cough out N150,000, while area chairmanship aspirants will pay N250,000 for nomination and States of House Assembly aspirants will pay N500,000 to purchase nomination forms.

The bill also intend to ensure that parties can no longer impose arbitrary nomination fees on political aspirants.

It should be noted that in the build up to the 2015 election, President Muhammadu Buhari said he borrowed money to pay for his own nomination form, which is about N25m.

Meanwhile, with regards to the ongoing speculations about President Buhari re-contesting for the 2017 elections, here are some thoughts.

While, Chekwas Okorie, the presidential candidate of the United Progressives Party (UPP) in the 2015 presidential election, says Buhari will not even attempt to go for a second term, the presidency as represented by Femi Adesina says Buhari will win if he contests another election.