20100817
reuters

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is yet to commit to whether or not he will contest elections due next January, his office said on Tuesday, after a presidency source said he was considering not standing.

Jonathan's spokesman, Ima Niboro, said that until the president made a declaration either way any other comment was pure speculation.

Earlier, a source told Reuters the president may not run in the polls and would make his intentions known by the end of the month.

"The truth is that the president has not said he will not run. Neither has he said he will," Niboro said in a statement.

"At different times he has given clear reasons why he considers it premature, in the interest of governance, to make any commitment... At the appropriate time, the president will inform his countrymen and -women of his future plans."

An election bid by Jonathan, who is from the southern Niger Delta, could split the ruling party due to an agreement that power rotates between the Muslim north and Christian south every two terms, meaning the next president should be a northerner.

The People's Democratic Party (PDP) has said Jonathan has the right to run, because he previously was vice president on a joint ticket with northern President Umaru Yar'Adua, who died mid-way through his first term earlier this year.

But the party also said that it would uphold the principle of "zoning" and that other candidates were free to contest its primaries, expected to be held in September.