The electoral umpire in Nigeria, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has announced its decision to maintain June 29 as its original deadline for the conduct of primaries, as well as the submission of party nominations for the September 19 set governorship elections in the south western state of Edo.
The chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, gave the warning during a virtual consultative meeting with security chiefs under the Inter-agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to adopt the security code of conduct for all security personnel covering the upcoming election in the state.
Stressing that the 15 political parties involved have only less than 10 days on their hands, the Chairman said: “The deadline is Saturday, June 27, 2020. I must stress that the date is firm and fixed. There will be no extension of the deadline. While the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates will be the sole responsibility of political parties, our officials will monitor the primaries as required by law,” for final submission of candidates, he added, “the deadline is 6 pm on Monday, 29 June 2020.”
Who is Qualified to Run?
Speaking on the eligibility of candidates, Professor Yakubu advised the parties to pay attention to the four mandatory requirements needed to run for governorship elections as stated in Section 177 of the Nigerian Constitution. “A candidate nominated by a political party must be a Nigerian citizen by birth; must have attained the age of 35 years; must be a member of, and sponsored by, a political party; and must be educated up to at least school certificate level or equivalent,” he said.
He also added that: “Adherence to these clear constitutional provisions is compulsory in order to avoid the unnecessary litigations that follow the nomination of candidates, some of which are still pending before the courts.”
Chaos Within Ruling Party
INEC’s warning comes amidst squabbles within the state’s ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) on its governorship candidates. Discord among the party’s leadership eventually pushed incumbent governor Godwin Obaseki to the main opposition, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), after he was disqualified from participating in the party’s upcoming June 22 primary elections.
This story is part of our new series on Nigeria where we analyse electoral reform in the country ahead of the next general elections in 2023.
