NIGERIA’S former President, Goodluck Jonathan has urged the country’s lawmakers to make laws that prohibit off-season elections.
Jonathan told journalists on Saturday after he cast his vote in the November 11, 2023 governorship election, that off-cycle polls should be struck out and harmonised with the general elections.
Jonathan said with the way things are going in Nigeria, the presidential election might become off-season.
Jonathan recalled that an off-season presidential poll “almost happened in 2007 when I contested as a running mate with President Umaru Yar’adua” but it was prevented.
“I get worried by the issue of off-season elections. And I use this opportunity to plead with the National Assembly that we need to block these off-season elections. It is very odd; it is not a global best practice,’’ the former president said.
“If we continue with this trend of off-season elections based on the interpretation of our laws by the judicial officers, it will come to a time when the presidential election will be off-season,’’ he added.
“Look at the American system, everybody knows when the American election will be conducted.”
Jonathan voted in Ward 13, Polling Unit 39, at Otuoke in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
