Abuja — Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday predicted an expensive general election next year, going by the stringent provisions in the 2010 Electoral Act just released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

National chairman of the party, Dr. Okwesilieze Nwodo who made the prediction while inaugurating the party's Fund Raising Committee, tasked them to do all within their powers to generate enough resources for the party.

He said there are several provisions in the Electoral Act on the mode of conducting the primaries of the parties that will require huge financial resources to implement which Nwodo noted, were not contained in the previous Electoral Acts.

"The new Electoral Act is giving us new challenges in the organization of our primary election because the Act has introduced the American system of staggered primaries and when you have staggered primaries it means that for the governorship primaries the primary election will take place in all the local government areas in the state and that means we will be organizing primary elections in all the 774 local government areas in order to produce our governorship candidates.

"It also means that we will have to hold primary elections in all the 36 states and the FCT in order to elect our presidential flag-bearer.

"These are new challenges for us. There are also other challenges in the Electoral Act which will necessitate more expenditures than we have had in the previous Electoral Act.

"Members at all levels must be adequately sensitized so that each member of our party can at least, invite one person who can raise money at that dinner and if we all do that, I am sure you will meet your target," the PDP boss stressed.

He told members of the Fund Raising Committee headed by the Delta state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, that resources will also be required by the party to mass produce its amended constitution and manifesto which all aspirants desirous of flying the party's flag must "know back to back".

He lamented the state of secretarial and other working equipment at the party's national secretariat, especially the Information Technology (IT) gadgets, which he described as "analogue" and declared that the National Working Committee (NWC) intends to upgrade the facilities to digital level which will also require huge financial resources.

On the membership of the Fund Raising Committee, Dr. Nwodo said President Goodluck Jonathan was particularly impressed with the choice of the Delta state governor who coincidentally was on the mind of the President when the NWC met him to fine tune the list of members of the committee.

Governor Uduaghan assured Nwodo that the committee appreciated the enormity of the task before it and assured the party leadership that they are up to the task.

He said: "There is no doubt that the party has become very, very big and the bigger the party is, the more responsibility for the leadership of the party, especially in the areas of fund and logistics and because this is a party that we don't want one person to hijack, all of us have to put our hands into our pocket and bring out money for the party.

"The party requires fund and there is the necessity to raise funds for it. I want to assure you that this committee will go round, knocking at the doors of everyone to assist us in the raising of the fund and at the end of the day, we shall not fail you.

"The committee is well loaded with people that can move round and we shall move round every nooks and cranny of the country to mobilise funds," Uduaghan said.

Other members of the committee are the governors of Enugu (Sullivan Chime), Adamawa (Murtala Nyako), Bauchi (Isah Yuguda) states and other national officers.