Edo/ Ondo 2024: INEC caution political parties on the need to conduct clean, safe primaries 

By David Lawani, Abuja

Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Mahmood Yakubu has urged political parties to eschew tendencies that could make room for acrimonious primaries saying giving waivers to members of political parties who joined few days to contesting for elective positions remains serious threat to the party.

Yakubu made this remarks during the first regular quarterly consultative meeting with political parties for 2024 held at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja stressing that the main focus of today’s meeting is the off-cycle Governorship elections in Edo and Ondo States.

He maintained that the two elections are holding later this year, adding the Edo State Governorship election is holding in the next six months i.e. Saturday 21st September 2024 while the Ondo State Governorship election is holding in eight months i.e. Saturday 16thNovember 2024.  ” Already, party primaries for the Edo State Governorship election have been concluded”.

According to him: ” Similarly, political parties should avoid acrimonious primaries. Increasingly, the conduct of parallel primaries and the emergence of multiple candidates is a frequent occurrence. So too is the tendency to grant waivers to candidates who were a few days earlier card-carrying members of other political parties and nominating such persons to the Commission as their candidates for election.

” Some of these infractions lead to unnecessary litigations among party members in which the Commission is always joined as a party. The legal fees and cost of producing Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents can be used more productively in other electoral activities by both the political parties and the Commission. We must find a solution to this situation.

” By the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election, political parties have 20 days to upload the list and personal particulars of their candidates to our dedicated portal. We have trained party Liaison Officers and established a Help Desk for political parties. The portal opened on 4th March 2024 and will automatically shut down at 6pm on Saturday 24thMarch 2024. Two weeks later, only six parties have uploaded their nominations to the portal.

 ” We urge you to keep to our schedule of activities and avoid last minute rush that may undermine your ability to successfully nominate your candidates. There will be no extension of time beyond the deadline already published in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election, to enable us publish the personal particulars of candidates (Form EC9) on 31st March 2024 as required by law.

” For the Ondo State Governorship election, party primaries begin in the next two weeks on 6thApril 2024 and ends three weeks later on 27thApril 2024. So far, 16 out of 19 political parties have indicated interest in participating in the election. I urge political parties to adhere strictly to your proposed dates and modes of primaries.

” Frequent changes as we witnessed recently during the Edo primaries are not only disruptive but costly. The Commission cannot mobilise, demobilise and remobilise our officials for the monitoring of party primaries at the convenience of political parties. Parties should stick to their proposed dates and modes of primaries for certainty and optimal deployment of resources”, he noted.