16 Political Parties To Contest Edo Governorship Race

Sixteen political parties have notified the Independent National Commission (INEC) of their intention to contest the Edo governorship election. They also told the commission of their preferred modes and dates of primaries which culminates on February 24.

INEC national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education committee, Sam Olumekun disclosed this in a statement yesterday.

Olumekun said the commission is set to deploy its monitoring teams, reminding political parties that Edo State is the constituency for the election.

He also urged the political parties to avoid rancorous primaries that would lead to the breakdown of law and order often as a result of non-adherence to the provision of their constitutions and guidelines.

“Sixteen political parties have notified the Commission of their intention to participate in the election as well as their preferred modes and dates of primaries,” he said.

The statement added, “By virtue of Section 82(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, political parties are required to give the Commission at least 21 days notice before the date fixed for the conduct of their primaries. The last date for such notification lapsed on 4th February 2024.

“Parties are urged to avoid unnecessary postponement, arbitrary changes of venues of their primaries, wholesale change of delegates’ list or the submission of names that did not emerge from valid primaries as candidates for the election. These are some of the issues that lead to a large number of pre-election litigations.

“The schedule (dates and modes) of primaries proposed by the political parties has been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms for public information,” the statement reads further.

In a related development the commission assured that all the lessons learnt from the conduct of the 2023 general elections will be applied in the Edo and Ondo governorship election.

The chief press secretary to the INEC chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, stated this as a guest on the political and current affairs programmes, Politics Today on Channels TV.

Oyekanmi who noted that the Bi-Modal Voters Accreditation Machine System (BIVAS) has come to stay, said the device is important because of its enhancing of the voter accreditation process.

He added that the glitches that trailed the electronic transmission of election during the last general election has been addressed. INEC’s Result Viewing (ReV) portal popularly called IREV had suffered a glitch during the 2023 presidential election.

“We don’t have issues with the BIVAS and IREV. As for the technical glitches that took place during the general election, we have corrected them and we are assuring that things will be better,” Oyekanmi said.

He added that subsequent elections including governorship have been held using BIVAS and IREV and that no legal issues have arisen over their use.

Reacting to intra-party squabbles, he urged political parties to address their internal issues adding that the commission only interfaces with the national party.

He however noted that the commission can, on the invitation of the political parties, intervene through its alternative conflict resolution mechanism.

He lamented that INEC has become an easy target, especially on social media, but assured that any official of the commission that is found wanting will face the consequences.