The Kano State Independent Electoral Commission, KANSIEC, has slashed the fee for nomination forms for chairmanship and councillorship positions in the upcoming Local Government election in the state.
The Chairman of the state’s electoral umpire, Professor Sani Lawan Malumfashi announced that the nomination fee for Chairmanship and Councillorship is now N9 million and N4 million respectively.
Dissatisfied with the KANSIEC’s position, the opposition paries went to court, where they obtained order restraining the commission from imposing the fees.
The court had last week restrained the KANSIEC from charging the N10 million and N5 million for Chairmanship and Councillorship positions.
Addressing journalists at the Commission’s headquarters in Kano on Friday, Professor Sani Lawan Malumfashi said KANSIEC had complied with the order by charging N9 million for Chairmanship and N4 million for Councillorship positions.
He explained that the fee is Also applicable to running mates of the chairmanship position.
“The forms are now available in banks. Candidates shout rush to the banks to purchase the forms.
“Because we are law-abiding, we have complied with the court’s order, “ he said.
The Chairman also said the commission had welcomed the decision of opposition parties to participate in the October 26 Local Government elections.
“ This is the beauty of democracy. However, they must play the game according to the rules. The campaigns should be issue-based, not violent and attacks.
Malumfashi also announced that primary elections begin tomorrow Saturday, September 14,
“We therefore expect parties to submit candidates list to submit lists.”
Paradigm News reports that the commission earlier pegged the nomination fee at N10 million for the Chairmanship position and N5 million for the councillorship.