The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said any political party that fails to conduct democratic primaries within the timeframe provided in the commission’s timetable and schedule of activities would not be allowed to submit the names of candidates for the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, scheduled for June 18 and July 16, 2022.
He, therefore, urged political parties to abide by the provisions of the law, the commission’s regulations/guidelines as well as their constitutions/guidelines in nominating candidates for the polls.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, who said this at a meeting with the resident electoral commissioners in Abuja, explained that the major activity for the two governorship elections is the conduct of primaries by political parties for the nomination of candidates.
He said for Ekiti, the primary election begins on January 4, 2022, and ends on January 29, 2022, and in the case of Osun State, the exercise commences on February 16, 2022, and ends on March 12, 2022.
“INEC will monitor the primaries as required by law. Political parties must therefore hold themselves to the same high standard of free, fair, transparent and credible elections that they expect from INEC during general elections.
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“In addition, there are eight pending bye-elections involving three Federal Constituencies (Jos North/Bassa in Plateau State, Akure North/Akure South in Ondo State and Ogoja/Yala in Cross River State) and five State constituencies (Shinkafi in Zamfara State, Ekiti East I in Ekiti State, Akpabuyo in Cross River State, Pankshin South in Plateau State and Giwa West in Kaduna State).
“In addition to these off-cycle elections, we must also continue to prepare for the 2023 General Election. We have so many physical facilities to rebuild, materials to replace, regulations and guidelines to work on, consultations with stakeholders to strengthen, the capacity of our staff to enhance and several aspects of election administration to improve upon,” Yakubu said.
The chairman who disclosed that INEC has completed the Second Quarter of the Continuous Voter’s Registration (CVR) across the country, however, said the exercise has been suspended in
Federal Capital Territory (FCT) given the forthcoming Area Council Elections scheduled for February 12, 2022, to meet the 60 days to the election as required by law.
He said: “A total of 42,986 Nigerians completed their registration in the FCT. The Commission has diligently cleaned up the data using our new Automatic Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to weed out multiple registrations. As a testimony to the efficacy of our ABIS process, 14,665 (34.1%) multiple registrations were detected and rejected. Consequently, the number of new valid registrants in the FCT is 28,321.
“Added to this figure are requests for transfer of registrations to FCT, replacement of lost or damaged PVCs and update of voter records, making an overall total of 39,208 new PVCs to be printed. I am glad to report that all the PVCs will be available for collection from 6th January 2022 until 4th February 2022.
“The FCT Office of the Commission will provide full details of the locations and procedure for the collection of the PVCs in earnest. I urge all new voters to seize the opportunity to collect their voters’ cards ahead of the deadline and avoid the last-minute rush that characterized such exercise in the past.”
