To reduce the rising numbers of pre-election litigations, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has threatened to reject candidates nominated outside the June 2- 27 deadline for Edo State governorship elections.
At the end of the 2019 general elections, INEC recorded about 890 pre-election court litigations arising from the conduct of political party primary elections, especially outside deadline stipulated.
To this end, INEC warned political parties that intend to field candidates for the Edo Governorship elections to strictly adhere to the dates as any party that operates outside the dates will only have itself to blame.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC Chairman who handed the warning Monday at a virtual consultative meeting with leaders of political parties said the submission of nomination forms will be done online for which a dedicated portal has been set up.
Yakubu stressed that the portal will be automatically shut down on the scheduled date and at the fixed hour and warned political parties to stick to the new online procedure for filing of nominations.
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He urged political parties that opt for direct primaries to avail the Commission with the register of members to be used for the election from Ward to Local Government and State levels for the effective discharge of its monitoring responsibilities under the law.
“Those that opt for indirect primaries should similarly make available to the Commission the list of delegates for the election. Doing otherwise will amount to going into an election without the voters’ register. The Commission makes available to each political party the complete register of voters before every major election. We expect political parties to reciprocate for their primaries.
“Based on experience, it is also important to draw your attention to the necessity for rancour-free primaries. Party primaries form the foundation for the secondary election conducted by the Commission. You must therefore avoid acts of thuggery, brigandage, vote-buying and other sundry violations of the Electoral Act.
“As we monitor the conduct of party primaries, we will pay particular attention to your compliance with the law and to consider sanctions so that the unruly behaviour of some party supporters is not carried forward to the main election”, the INEC Chairman said.
Yakubu announced that the Notice for the Election (Form EC60A) has been pasted in Edo State INEC office and published the same notice on its website and social media platforms, signifying that the process leading to the Edo Governorship election on 19th September 2020 has commenced in earnest.
In his address, Leonard Nzenwa, Interim National Chairman, Inter-party Advisory Committee (IPAC) called on INEC to review some aspects of its Policy Document on conducting elections under Covid-19 that raised concerns and misgivings by stakeholders who strongly feel that some of its provisions might not be feasible when it is lifted from paper for implementation.
Nzenwa also urged INEC to ensure that minimal discomfort is imposed on voters and other stakeholders in its quest to ensure that the nation have a credible and acceptable polls during the Edo, Ondo and other bye-elections that it planned to hold in the weeks and months ahead as.
“More importantly the need to deepen engagement with all stakeholders especially the electorate by properly informing them about their roles and responsibilities during election in the context of Covid-19 pandemic with high health risk factor using safety hygienic tools like face-mask and use of sanitizer, and ensuring that crowd are controlled and social distancing is promoted require sustain publicity and awareness creation in Edo, Ondo and other areas where bye elections will be held by the Commission.
