Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given political parties a one-week extension to the June 3 primary election deadline.
Earlier this week, INEC National Commissioner Festus Okoye met with political leaders to make the request, and on Friday, he released a statement announcing this.
Okoye stated that the Commission had no specific plans in place between June 3 and 9, so the political parties’ request was granted.
According to the full statement,
“The INEC met with political party leaders today, Friday, May 27, 2022, to discuss the upcoming 2022 elections. A second request was made by political parties for an examination of the timetable and schedule of activities released on Saturday 26th February 2022, which included dates for the primary elections of political parties.
The political parties had previously requested an extension of the primary and nomination period of 37 to 60 days.” According to the Commission, granting this request would cause major disruptions to other activities on the Timetable. There has been no change in the Commission’s position on this matter.
Although the parties have requested that the Commission use the six days between 4th and 9th June 2022 to complete outstanding primaries and prepare to upload the list of candidates and affidavits on the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal, based on the 2023 General Election Timetable and Schedule of Activities. During this time, the Commission did not plan any specific activities. So that the parties can put together their list of nominated candidates before uploading the list and personal details of their nominees from June 10th to June 17th, 2022,” says the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal.
Political parties must submit their list of candidates to be sponsored, along with an affidavit swearing that the candidates have met all the constitutional requirements for election to various offices, online via INEC’s Candidates Nomination Portal after the primaries have been held.
“Also, based on previous experience, the Commission has decided to train the political party officials on how to use the portal effectively. Four officials from each of the 18 political parties will be trained by the Commission, resulting in a total of 72 people being trained.
A few political parties have yet to submit their names for the training, which is unfortunate. Such parties are hereby reminded by the Commission to take immediate action. The Commission wants to make clear that only nominations submitted electronically will be considered for consideration.
For the sake of completing the remaining activities in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, political parties are urged to ensure that their primaries are free of rancor.”
Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) Yabagi Sani requested earlier in the meeting that the timeline for elections be slightly adjusted to allow for the smooth running of primary elections for the nomination of candidates for the 2023 elections.
When asked about a letter that IPAC sent to INEC after their meeting, Sani said they asked them to take a second look at the timeline because it is so short and there are bound to be mistaken with the Electoral Act 2022 being used for the first time.
When asked if the primaries would be free and fair, he said, “We believe that if we have more time, we will be able to fulfill our promise.”
Following a meeting of political party leaders in which we unanimously agreed that a review was necessary, this meeting will take place.”
We’re pleading with you to take our request into account and make a small adjustment to your schedule so that we can complete this extremely important task.”
It was also requested by Zenith Labour Party’s National Chairman, Dan Nwanyanwu, to give political parties between June 3 and 9 to put their affairs in order.
As Nwanyanwu put it, “The window he (Sani) is talking about is what happens between June 3 and June 9 when we start uploading what we get from the primaries. That’s what we want to put before you to consider and plead with you.
Nothing more than a window to allow the parties to prepare their documentation is what we are pleading for,” says the petitioner. Allow us between March 3rd and September 9th, please, Commission, so that political parties can put their house in order.
The 30-day request was denied; the two-month request was also denied. You flatly refused to give us anything we requested. This one, I don’t believe, will have an impact on the schedule. Will not change the date of voting. It has no effect. Those things that we haven’t done yet, we can theoretically take up to the time when we are preparing our documentation,” we need this window for.
IPAC’s current request was different from previous ones, so the Commission would meet after the interface and issue a statement conveying its decision, INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu said before the meeting went behind closed doors.
“We just received a call from the head of IPAC, on behalf of the political parties, requesting a review of our election timelines,” Yakubu said.
There appears to be a difference between this request and the one to which the Commission responded emphatically earlier.
As a point of emphasis, the request for an extension of up to 60 days was made the previous time.” The Commission’s stance on these issues has not changed. Requests for additional activities will not be accepted in light of the overlapping activities that have already been released and published.
In what the chairman refers to as “a little adjustment,” the parties appear to have made a more specific request. Now that we’ve talked about it more, the Commission will meet and state after we’ve talked about it more.
- Tags: INEC, Nigeria, Primaries elections
