The House of Representatives on Tuesday amended the Electoral Act to change the order of the nation’s 2019 general elections time table released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In the timetable released by INEC about a month ago, Presidential and National Assembly elections were to hold first while Governorship and State Assembly polls would follow.

But in the amended act which was made during the plenary presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Mr. Yusuf Lasun, the National Assembly election is to hold first, followed by Gubernatorial and State Assembly polls while the Presidential elections will be conducted last.

The House also amended Section 36 to allow the running mate of a candidate that dies before the conclusion of an electoral process to inherit his votes and continue with the process, even as Section 35 which states that if before an election a candidate dies, he would be replaced by the next candidate with the highest vote was also amended.

The amendment indicated that if a nominated candidate died in the election process, the next person from the same political party with the second highest votes in the primary election should replace the deceased.

The House also increased  the amount of electioneering expenses which can be incurred by presidential candidates from N1 billion to N5 billion.

It also raised the ceiling of governorship expenses from N200 million to N1billion while Senatorial and House of Representatives candidates’ expenses are not to exceed N100 million and N70 million respectively.

For State Assembly and Local Government Chairmanship candidates, expenses were raised from N10 million to N30 million while the expenses for Councillorship candidates was increased from N5 million to N10million.