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Line up for Nigerian presidency
06/01/2007 08:34 - (SA)
Abuja - Nigeria's landmark presidential elections in April will be contested by a total of 25 candidates, the country's electoral commission announced on Friday.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) said that the agency was about to begin checking the validity of all the candidates, who were each put forward by a different political party.
"It is to ensure that all candidates fulfil the constitutional requirements for election into the respective offices and suffer no legal disability that disqualifies them," said Inec spokesman Muhammed Abubakar.
Under Inec rules, Nigeria's 50 registered political parties had to submit candidate details by December 22 and must withdraw and substitute names if there are problems by February 21, which is 60 days before the elections.
Verification plans "unconstitutional"
One of Nigeria's main opposition parties, the Action Congress (AC), has said the Inec verification plans are unconstitutional.
The nation's anti-graft agency, the EFCC, last September indicted the AC's presidential candidate, vice president Atiku Abubakar, for corruption. He has since denied the charge.
President Olusegun Obasanjo - who will step down in April after eight years in power - has refused to back Abubakar.
Abubakar served Obasanjo as deputy from May 1999 - when the nation returned to democratic rule - until last month when he defected to the AC from the ruling People's Democratic Party. His post has since been vacant.
The April 21 2007 elections are being billed as the first transition in Nigeria's history from one democratically elected civilian administration to another.
- AFP
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