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The Independent National Electoral Commission
yesterday officially released the schedule for next year’s general
elections, listing the presidential and gubernatorial polls for January
22 and 29 respectively.

With a new Electoral Act as guide, and a hefty N87.7
billion budget, the timetable represents the commission’s first major
move towards the decisive elections, and ends weeks of public concern,
which peaked with the worry about government’s inability to finance the
election budget.

Attahiru Jega, the commission chairman, however,
denied the stories over the weekend, saying the commission had what it
required financially. He announced on Monday that a fresh voters’
register, a key element in the buildup, will be ready by December 9,
2010, while the actual polls may hold as early as January 8, 2011.

The schedule, released late Tuesday afternoon,
contained marked differences from earlier approved dates, which
political parties said were sent to them last week.

The National Assembly elections come first, as
prescribed in the Electoral Act, and would hold on January 15, 2011;
followed by the presidential election, which is to be conducted on
January 22.

Governorship elections and the state Houses of
Assembly elections are to hold the same day: January 29, 2011,
according to the INEC released table.

Run-offs for the governorships and the presidential
polls, if any, will hold within seven days after the announcement of
the result of the respective elections, in accordance with sections 174
and 134 of the amended constitution.

The timetable, delivered to journalists by Solomon
Shuebi, the commission’s chairman on information and publicity, showed
an ambitious drive by the commission to overcome a pertinent challenge,
which Mr. Jega acknowledged on Monday: time.

“Obviously, the more time we have, the better job we can do on this assignment,” he said on Monday.

“We have made a case for funding, and we have
received the funding that we have requested for. However, the time
constraint is still of concern, although we are doing our best to see
that we overcome it,” he said.

Start with primaries

That concern is reflected in the released table, with
critical preliminary electioneering processes, which kick up with the
voters’ registration, spanning just between September through December,
2011.

The conduct of party primaries is the first, and opens on Saturday, September 11 to October 30, 2010.

“This is to enable political parties democratically
nominate candidates for the elections, as required by section 87 of the
Electoral Act,” the commission said in the statement.

The much expected voters’ registration holds between
November 1 and 14, 2010, while substitution and replacement of
candidates by parties will end December 14.

For the registration, Mr. Jega said the commission targets 70 million Nigerians and will be rounded off in two weeks.

“We have estimated that it may take between 9 to 10
minutes to register one person using the Direct Capture Machine with
one registration officer. If we are to work 8 hours daily, we expect
that we can register up to about 70 million in 14 days.

“This has taken into consideration even possibility
of unexpected delays and so on. If there are 70 million registerable
Nigerians out there, we believe that with the deployment capacity that
we have planned for, we should be able, within a period of two weeks of
capturing with 8 hours in a day, to capture all of these,” he said.