Connect with us
Advertisement

Nigeria News

Electoral Bill: NASS Raises Costs For Presidential Candidates To N5bn

Published

on

National Assembly Officials Deny N500 Million Fraud Allegation
Advertisement

The National Assembly has raised election costs for presidential candidates from N1 billion to N5 billion.

Naija News reports that the National Assembly made the provision in the revised Electoral Act Amendment Bill passed by the lawmakers last week.

In the revised electoral bill which will be sent to Buhari for assent, presidential candidates have the chance to spend up to N5 billion as election expenses.

Also, governorship candidates can now spend N1 billion as election costs against N200 million which was the former amount pegged by the National Assembly.

Advertisement

The National Assembly also raised the election costs for Senatorial candidates from N40 million to N100 million while House of Representatives candidates increased the expenses from N20 million to N70 million.

For Chairmanship candidates, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate shall not exceed N30 million while councillorship candidates can now spend N5 million as election costs.

The new section 91 (1) reads: “Election expenses shall not exceed the sum stipulated in subsections (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) and (7).

Advertisement

“(2) The maximum election expenses to be incurred by a candidate at a presidential election shall not exceed N5,000,000,000.00.

“(3) The maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate in respect of governorship election shall not exceed N1,000,000,000.00.

“(4) The maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a Candidate in respect of the Senatorial and House of Representatives seat shall not exceed N100,000,000.00 and N70,000,000.00 respectively.

Advertisement
Advertisement

“(5) In the case of State Assembly election, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate shall not exceed N30,000,000.00.

“(6) In the case of a chairmanship election to an Area Council, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate shall not exceed N30,000,000.00.

“(7) In the case of Councillorship election to an Area Council, the maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate shall not exceed N5,000,000.00.”

The parliament also increased the amount an individual can donate to a presidential candidate from N1 million to N50 million.

Section 91 (9) of the old bill reads: “No individual or other entity shall donate more than N1, 000,000.00 to any candidate.”

Section 91 (9) of the new bill reads: “No individual or other entity shall donate to a candidate more than N50,000,000.00.”