Former President Goodluck Jonathan has urged the National Assembly (NASS) to make laws that prohibit off-season elections in Nigeria.
He said that the off-cycle polls should be struck out and harmonised with the general elections.
The former president disclosed this on Saturday after he cast his vote in Ward 13, Polling Unit 39, at Otuoke in the Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Jonathan said that with the way things are going in Nigeria, the presidential election might become off-season.
The ex-governor of Bayelsa State said 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.
“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.
“Look at the American system; everybody knows when the American election will be conducted.”
Like Bayelsa, governorship elections are held in Imo and Kogi on Saturday.
Earlier in March, governorship elections were held in 28 out of the 36 states of the Federation. This was so because the governorship elections of eight states (Anambra, Bayelsa, Edo, Ekiti, Imo, Kogi, Osun and Ondo) are held off-season due to litigations and court judgments.
