Judges of the Federal High Court (FHC) are to embark on a seven-day break to enable them to participate in the forthcoming presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, February 25.
This was disclosed in a circular signed by the Chief Judge of the court, John Tsoho.
According to the circular, the break begins on February 22 and ends on February 28.
For the presidential and National Assembly elections that will hold on Saturday, 18 presidential candidates will appear on the ballot but only four candidates are largely recognised by a majority of Nigerians.
These are Labour Party’s Peter Obi, Peoples Democratic Party’s Atiku Abubakar, APC’s Bola Tinubu and Rabiu Kwankwaso, contesting on the New Nigeria Peoples Party ticket.
However, the circular by the Federal High Court also disclosed that there would be judges appointed to hear urgent cases across the country.
The circular partly reads, “The Administrative Judges in the Abuja, Lagos and Port Harcourt Judicial Divisions shall ensure that a Judge is designated to cater for the North, South-West, South-South/South-East geopolitical areas, respectively, regarding urgent matters during the period.”
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the general elections would be held in Nigeria on 25 February 2023 to elect the President and Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari is ineligible to run, being term-limited.
The President of Nigeria is elected using a modified two-round system. To be elected in the first round, a candidate must receive a plurality of the valid vote and over 25% in at least 24 of the 36 states.
If no candidate passes this threshold, a second round will be held between the top candidate and the next candidate to have received a majority of votes in the highest number of states.
The 109 members of the Senate are elected from 109 single-seat constituencies (three in each state and one for the Federal Capital Territory) by first-past-the-post voting.
The 360 members of the House of Representatives are also elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies.
