INEC Advises Politic Parties To Abide By The Rules In Conducting Primaries
LAGOS DECEMBER 22ND (NEWSRANGERS)-Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof Mahmood Yakubu
has reiterated that political parties must abide by the provisions of the law, INEC’s regulations and guidelines as well as their Constitutions and guidelines in choosing their candidates in future elections.
Stressing that INEC will monitor the primaries as required by law, he pointed out that 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.
Mahmood warned that any political party that fails to conduct democratic primaries within the timeframe provided in the Commission’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities cannot be expected to submit the names of candidates to INEC for elections.
Prof Yakubu Mahmood who handed over the warning to political parties in his remark speech during a meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) held at the INEC Conference room, Abuja on Tuesday December 21st, 2021 advised that in addition to off-cycle elections, the RECs 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, capacity of our staff to enhance and several aspects of election administration to improve upon. Next year is therefore going to be a very busy year for us.
“Meanwhile, in view of the forthcoming Area Council Elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) scheduled for 12th February 2022 involving 68 constituencies to elect 6 Area Council Chairmen and 62 Councillors, the CVR exercise was suspended nine days ago i.e. 60 days to the election as required by law. 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 last minute rush that characterized such exercise in the past.
“You may recall that in June this year, the Commission released the timetable and schedule of activities for the Ekiti Governorship election holding on 18th June 2022 and the Osun Governorship election scheduled for 16th July 2022. A major activity for the two Governorship elections is the conduct of primaries by political parties for the nomination of candidates for the election.
“ For Ekiti State, the exercise begins in the next 2 weeks on 4th January 2022 and ends on 29th January 2022. In the case of Osun State, party primaries begin on 16th February 2022 and ends on 12th March 2022.
“ 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).
Turning to the CVR, the INEC Boss stated that they have completed the Second Quarter of the exercise which commenced online in June and physically at designated centres in July, adding that they have also been giving Nigerians weekly updates for the last six months.
According to him, “The Third Quarter of the exercise will commence in January next year. The Commission is aware that Nigerians would like to know when the exercise will be devolved beyond our State and Local Government offices to enable more citizens to register.
“Secondly, for those already registered, they would like to know when their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) will be available for collection. The Commission is working on these concerns and issues and will issue a comprehensive schedule for both activities early in the new year.”
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Posted by News Rangers
on Dec 22 2021. Filed under National.
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