The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) and other stakeholders have expressed concern over the increase in campaign spending ceiling, proposed in the Electoral Amend Bill ahead of the 2023 elections.
The stakeholders, at a High-Level Policy Roundtable on Political Campaign Finance on Friday in Abuja, expressed concern that the high cost of campaign spending ceiling and election expenses might exclude potentially good candidates.
In the proposed Electoral Bill, a presidential candidate can now spend from N5 billion as against the former N1 billion in the 2018 Act.
NAN also reports that a governorship candidate will now spend up to N1 billion from the previous N200 million while a Senatorial candidate can spend N100 million as against the previous N40 million.
Furthermore, a House of Representatives candidate will henceforth spend N70 million instead of N30 million in their respective election spendings.
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman INEC, represented by Prof. Kunle Ajayi, INEC’s National Commissioner, said that from the previous experiences of the Nigerian electoral systems, INEC has been battling some financial issues.
Yakubu said through theEconomic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, commercial banks would be mandated to report all suspicious transactions ahead of the election while threatening to prosecute any bank that failed to cooperate.
“We have not officially declared notice for the 2023 general elections, but when we so declare, we will put our monitoring committees to motion like the central banks, the DSS, the EFCC, the ICPC, the (commercial) banks and other law enforcement agencies.
