John Adams, Minna
The Niger State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) has said that the administrative changes imposed on candidates contesting the November 30 local government elections is backed by law and will not be withdrawn.
State chairman of the Commission Alhaji Aminu Baba Alhaji stated this in Minna on Friday while reacting to accusations by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) that there was no law empowering the state body to levy candidates.
Alhaji disclosed that the law was actually passed by the state house of assembly, assented to by Governor Abubakar Sani Bello and gazetted by the government on June 25.
The SIEC chairman said the PDP, which objected to the policy, were duly informed of the existence of the legislation during “a stakeholders meeting where the PDP chairman was in attendance.”
Alhaji, while referring to relevant sections of the law, pointed to section 26 which states that “Notwithstanding anything that may be contained in this law or any other enactment, every candidate seeking to contest for an elective position in the local Government Council Election in the state shall before the candidates nomination papers are delivered pay to the commission administrative charges.”
According to the chairman the, “administrative charges postulated by the law include for the chairmanship, subject to the campaign spending limit of ten million naira, 1%, which translate to one hundred thousand naira.
“For the Councillorship subject to the campaign spending limit of one million naira, shall pay 2% which translates to twenty thousand naira.
“We have been acting within the limits of the law we met with the leadership of the political parties before taking our action; we did not fix the charges arbitrarily,” Alhaji said, adding that other states, including Kaduna and states of the south south region, have similar legislation.
“All contestants have been paying,” he said, “even some PDP candidates have been paying.”
The SIEC chairman accused the PDP of playing politics with a very serious matter, adding that “we will not join them in their politics.”
He said the SIEC was ready to face the PDP in the law court because “we have not done anything illegal.”
The People’s Democratic Party PDP had on Tuesday rejected the “administrative charges” imposed on candidates contesting the local government election by the Electoral Commission, describing the action as not only illegal but unconstitutional.
Tanko Beji, Niger State chairman of the party, had told reporters in Minna that the party had written the SIEC to withdraw the decision, adding that if the Commission failed to do so the party will have no option but to test the veracity of the law in court.