With the expiration of deadline on Tuesday, political parties can no longer withdraw or replace their governorship and state House of Assembly candidates from the February 28 elections.

This is part of the guideline released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and backed by provision of Section 35 of the Electoral Act (2010) which provides for this to be done not later than 45 days before the election.

For the presidential election and national assembly candidates, that phase was crossed on December 30, 2014.

The 2015 general election will take place on February 14 (presidential and National Assembly) and February 28, 2015.

This comes as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is to formally present to political parties copies of the Voters’ Register to be used in conducting the 2015 general election today..

Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended) provides that the Register of Voters for an election shall be published at least 30 days before the elections.

Also, the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2015 general election released to the public on January 24, 2015 show under item 10 that the commission shall release/ publish the official register of voters for the election on January 13, 2015.

Similarly, the commission shall publish the list of nominated candidates contesting for the presidency and National Assembly today as mandated by Section 34 of the electoral act which provides that it should be done 30 days before the election.

The list of those contesting for the offices of governor and House of Assembly would be published on January 27.