Ahead of the Edo State governorship election slated for September 19, 2020, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has told the participating political parties that there is no going back on the June 27, deadline for their primary elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the warning yesterday at the second virtual consultative meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES).
The meeting was attended by the National Security Adviser (NSA) and Co-Chair of ICCES, the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) for Edo and Ondo states, the Commissioners of Police of Edo and Ondo states, among others.
Prof. Yakubu said, “Turning to the Edo governorship election, all political parties interested in fielding candidates for the election are reminded that they must conclude their primaries for the nomination of candidates in the next 10 days. The deadline is Saturday, 27th June, 2020. I must stress that the date is firm and fixed. There will be no extension of the deadline.
“While the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates will be the sole responsibility of political parties, our officials will monitor the primaries as required by law. Already, the commission has published the date and mode of primaries for each of the 15 political parties that indicated their intention to participate in the election.”
He warned that there would be no extension of time for political parties that failed to submit the names and other details of the candidates that emerged from their primaries using the dedicated portal created by the commission; which deadline is 06:00pm on Monday, June 29, 2020.
He said, “Arising from our experience in managing the nomination of candidates for the last two governorship elections in Bayelsa and Kogi states, it is important to draw the attention of political parties to the four mandatory requirements for eligibility of candidates for governorship elections enshrined in Section 177 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).
“A candidate nominated by a political party must be a Nigerian citizen by birth; must have attained the age of 35; must be a member of, and sponsored by a political party; and must be educated up to at least school certificate level or equivalent.
“Adherence to these clear constitutional provisions is compulsory in order to avoid the unnecessary litigations that follow the nomination of candidates, some of which are still pending before the courts. In fact, one of such cases involving the attempt to substitute an ineligible candidate by one of the political parties was determined only yesterday by the Supreme Court in favour of INEC.
” The INEC boss said the commission and security agencies would remain proactive during the primaries, electioneering campaigns, voting and eventual declaration of results.
