Ekiti, Osun Guber: INEC Threatens To Reject Candidates Of Parties Who Fail To Conduct ‘Democratic Primaries’

Ahead of the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has warned political parties that candidates who do not emerge from democratically conducted primaries would be rejected by the electoral umpire.

The chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, issued the warning during a meeting with the resident electoral commissioners held at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

Yakubu noted that such primaries must also be conducted within the timeframe provided in INEC’s timetable and schedule of activities for the Ekiti and Osun elections fixed for June 18, 2022 and July 16, 2022, respectively.

For the Ekiti governorship, political parties are expected to conduct their primaries between January 4 and 29, while primaries for the Osun governorship election are to hold between February 16 and March 12, 2022.

Yakubu said, “The Commission wishes to remind political parties that in choosing their candidates for these elections, they must abide by the provisions of the law, INEC’s regulations and guidelines as well as their Constitutions and guidelines. 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. 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.”

The INEC Chairman further noted that 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, 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.”