The Independent
National Electoral Commission, INEC, has released dates for the conduct of
governorship primaries by political parties in Edo and Ondo States.
INEC’s Chairman,
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, at a meeting with Residents Electoral Commissioners, in
Abuja on Friday said the end of tenure Governorship elections in Edo and Ondo
were holding later in the year.
He said given recent
experience with some Governorship elections, political parties needed to do
more to avoid the conduct of acrimonious primaries or failure to observe due
diligence in the screening of their candidates, resulting in protracted
litigations and eventual determination of the outcome of elections by orders of
court.
“I wish to draw the
attention of political parties to two critical dates in the timetable released
by the Commission a few weeks ago. Party primaries for the democratic election
and nomination of candidates for the Governorship election in Edo State must be
held from 2nd to 27th June 2020. The date for Ondo State is 2nd to 25th July
2020. The Commission will not extend the dates. We will also rigorously monitor
the primaries and where necessary, apply sanctions as provided by law.
“At the same time,
the personal particulars of all the candidates nominated by political parties
for the Edo and Ondo Governorship elections, including their academic
qualifications, will be displayed in our offices in the two States as required
by law. This will enable citizens to scrutinise them and take legal action
against any candidate who provides false information to the Commission.
“The personal
particulars of candidates will be displayed on 6th July 2020 in Edo State and
on 4th August 2020 in Ondo State. I wish to appeal to citizens to note the
dates and to seize the opportunity to scrutinise the information provided on
oath by the candidates in the interest of our democracy and good governance,”
he said.
Yakubu said the
Commission had been studying the judgments of courts arising from the conduct
of recent elections and had also been reviewing the reports from accredited
observers as well as internal reports from State Offices, saying that “We will
continue to keep an eye on the conduct of our officials and apply appropriate
sanctions on erring staff, both regular and ad-hoc.”
Ahead of the Edo and
Ondo Governorship elections, he said critical changes would be introduced to
strengthen its processes and procedures, saying the Commission, jointly with
the security agencies, was reviewing deployment during elections.
Yakubu stated that
the major responsibility of the body was the conduct of elections which must be
free, fair and credible.
“The reality in
Nigeria today is that elections have become an all-year round activity for the
Commission. This year alone, the Commission has conducted elections into 28
constituencies by court order. Four bye-elections will be held in the next
three weeks,” he said.
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