Gubernatorial elections will take place in 29 states where 1,068 candidates alongside their deputies, fielded by multiple political parties, will participate. There are 91 political parties that have been registered by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), but not all of them fielded candidates.
Similarly, the over 70m prospective voters are expected select 991 house of assembly members from the 14, 643 that have been cleared by INEC to participate in the legislative contest scheduled to hold in all the 36 states of the federation.
However, there will be no governorship elections in seven states namely, Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Kogi, Ondo and Osun.
Like in all the states, The FCT Police Command has restricted movement to ensure hitch-free Area Council polls. There are 105 FCT chairmanship candidates and 701 councillorship candidates contesting for the six seats and 62 councilors in the territory.
The state of the states
Imo, with 90 governorship candidates, tops the list of states with high number of candidates. Almost all registered parties have fielded candidates in the Southeastern state. It is followed by Rivers, with 64 candidates; Kano came third with 55, Sokoto has 51 candidates to come fourth; Delta came fifth with 50 candidates and Akwa Ibom and Lagos states came sixth with 45 candidates each.
Yobe, Jigawa and Katsina states have 13, 16 and 18 candidates to record the lowest number of candidates.
Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Mr. Rotimi Oyekanmi, said there will be state houses of assembly elections in states that will not have governorship elections, meaning the whole country will be affected by voting activities.
Of the 29 states holding governorship elections today, 17 of them are currently controlled by the ruling APC while 12 are in the hands of the opposition PDP, with each seeking to gain more ground.
The states controlled by the APC include Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Oyo, Plateau, Yobe and Zamfara.
On the other hand, the PDP is in charge in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Gombe, Kwara, Rivers, Sokoto and Taraba states.
Culled from DailyTrust Newspaper.
