INEC Laments Legal Gaps as Early Campaigns Go Unpunished.

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has lamented the electoral management body’s inability to sanction political parties, candidates, and their supporters who engage in premature campaigns ahead of elections.

According to Yakubu, while the Electoral Act prescribed a fine of Five hundred thousand naira for campaigns conducted less than twenty-four hours to an election, there are no sanctions for campaigns carried out before the one hundred and days window stipulated by the two thousand and twenty-two Electoral Act.

He emphasized that the Commission’s strong conviction is that protecting the nation’s electoral process and consolidating its democracy is a multi-stakeholder responsibility.