The Independent National Electoral Commission has told political parties partaking in the state governorship election to submit names of their candidates latest by 6pm on June 29.*
The commission told Sunday PUNCH on Saturday that since parties had been given sufficient time to prepare for the primaries fixed for between June 2 and 27, any party that failed to conduct primaries on the date cannot approach it with any list.
*The commission said it would not issue any access code to any defaulting party for the purpose of filing the nomination of candidates.*
*INEC said all the parties which indicated their intention to conduct primaries for the nomination of candidates must conclude the exercise and resolve all disputes arising from the exercise on or before June 27, 2020.*
The commission said, “Every political party that conducted valid party primaries shall complete and upload the nominations forms on INEC nomination portal, INEC political party nomination web portal in the manner prescribed by the commission and the last day for this is on June 29 2020.
“The documents shall be uploaded not later than 6pm on the last day for the submission of the forms. The portal shall no longer be available after the specified time.”
Sunday PUNCH reported that 15 out of the 18 registered political parties had notified INEC of their intention to conduct primaries.
The parties are Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, African Democratic Party, All Progressives Congress, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement and the Action Peoples Party.
Others are Labour Party, New Nigeria Peoples Party, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Democratic Party, Social Democratic Party, Young Progressive Party and Zenith Labour Party.
Our correspondent observed that out of the 15 parties, only the APC would be using direct mode for its primaries, while others opted for indirect primaries.
But in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, INEC National Commissioner and chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said the June 29 deadline remained unchanged.
*(PUNCH)*
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