* Presidential elections due by next April
* Reforms could mean polls as early as November
By Felix Onuah
ABUJA, March 16 (Reuters) – Nigeria’s election commission will on Tuesday announce two possible timetables for presidential, parliamentary and state polls pending the outcome of electoral reforms before parliament, officials said.
The current presidential term in Africa’s most populous nation ends in May 2011 and elections are due by April next year under the present system. But a reform bill before parliament could bring the polls forward to as early as November this year.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will announce the timetables at a joint presentation with Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, a source in the presidency said.
“The Acting President will be at the event to assure Nigerians of government’s commitment to ensuring free and fair elections,” the source told Reuters, asking not to be named.
Maurice Iwu, the head of INEC, told local television that the commission planned to announce two timetables.
Jonathan took over executive powers a month ago in the absence of ailing President Umaru Yar’Adua, who has since returned from three months in a Saudi hospital but remains too sick to govern the OPEC member nation of 140 million people.
Jonathan’s takeover as acting leader ended immediate concerns about stagnation in government business but did not resolve the broader issue of who the country’s next president will be, a decision which will determine whether economic and political reforms accelerate or stagnate.
Nigeria’s political kingpins are jockeying for influence over who the ruling PDP party’s presidential nominee should be and some say an early election would draw the uncertainty to a faster close.
Parliament is considering electoral reforms including a suggestion made by former Chief Justice Muhammadu Uwais that elections should take place at least six months before the presidential term expires, allowing time to settle any legal challenges before the new president is sworn in.
The aim is to avoid the sorts of legal battles that dogged the first half of Yar’Adua’s term and undermined his authority. (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: af.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by Nick Tattersall)
Source: Reuters
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