Edo/Ondo Guber: Avoid Acrimonious Primaries, INEC Warns

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged political parties to keep to its schedule of activities and avoid last minute rush that may undermine their ability to successfully nominate candidates for the Edo and Ondo States’ governorship elections slated for September and November respectively.
INEC said there would be no extension of time beyond the deadline already published in the “Timetable and Schedule of Activities” for the election “to enable us publish the personal particulars of candidates (Form EC9) on 31st March, 2024 as required by law for Edo governorship polls.”

INEC chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu stated these yesterday at the first regular quarterly consultative meeting for 2024 with political parties in Nigeria under the auspices of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Abuja yesterday.
Yakubu said already, party primaries for the Edo State governorship election have been concluded and by the “Timetable and Schedule of Activities” for the polls, political parties have 20 days to upload the list and personal particulars of their candidates to our dedicated portal.
He said, “We have trained party liaison officers and established a helpd for political parties. The portal opened on 4th March, 2024 and will automatically shut down at 6pm on Saturday 24thMarch 2024.

“Two weeks later, only six parties have uploaded their nominations to the portal. We urge political parties to adhere strictly to your proposed dates and modes of primaries,” he said.
The INEC chairman said frequent changes in schedule as witnessed recently during the Edo primaries are not only disruptive but costly, noting that the Commission cannot mobilise, demobilise and remobilise its officials for the monitoring of party primaries at the convenience of political parties.

He also asked political parties to avoid acrimonious primaries as the conduct of parallel primaries and the emergence of multiple candidates is a frequent occurrence with the tendency of granting waivers to candidates who were a few days earlier card-carrying members of other political parties and nominating such persons to the Commission as their candidates for election.

Yakubu said some of these infractions lead to unnecessary litigations among party members in which the Commission is always joined as a party and the legal fees and cost of producing Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents can be used more productively in other electoral activities by both the political parties and INEC.

He said for the Ondo State governorship election, party primaries begin in the next two weeks on April 6 and end three weeks later on April 27, 2024, disclosing that so far, 16 of the 19 political parties have indicated interest in participating in the election.

On the recent rerun and bye-elections, Yakubu said, “Like the 2023 General Election, the recent bye-elections and re-run elections also produced the most diverse outcome in terms of party representation. Seven political parties won elections in different National and State Assembly constituencies. In some cases, parties won elections in constituencies outside their assumed strongholds. We congratulate the winners.

“However, as you are aware, elections were disrupted by thugs in Enugu South 1 State Constituency of Enugu State and Kunchi/Tsanyawa State Constituency of Kano State.

“We are engaging with stakeholders, including the security agencies. Very soon, a new date will be announced for the re-run elections in the two State constituencies,” he said.