Inec gives parties up until June 17 to submit the names of their candidates and running mates

NIGERIA'S Independent National Electoral Commission (Inec) has given all of the country's 18 registered political parties eight days to submit the names of their running mates following the recent conclusion of the presidential primaries.

 

Over the last week, all the parties have been busy holding summit to elect their presidential candidates and now that this process has been completed, the stage is to submit the list to Inec. Of particular interest will be who Alhaji Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) select as their running mates.

 

Former vice president Atiku a Muslim from Adamawa State is widely tipped to go for a running mate from the southeast geo-political zone, although it has been rumoured that he may opt for someone from the south-south. Asiwaju Tinubu on the other hand, is a Muslim from Lagos State who has said he will pick a northern Christian as his running mate.

 

Yesterday, Inec chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu, met with the 36 resident electoral commissioners and told them the parties have until next Friday to send in the details of their presidential candidates and running mates. He also said that all political parties are required to upload the details of their candidates for each constituency to the Inec Candidate Nomination Portal.

 

Professor Yakubu added: “For the next one week from tomorrow, 10th June, all political parties are required to submit their list of candidates for national elections presidential/vice presidential, senatorial and house of representatives latest by Friday, 17th June. For state elections (governorship/deputy governorship and state houses of assembly), the list of candidates shall be uploaded from 1st to 15th July as already provided in the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 general election already released by the commission.”

 

He pointed out that the list of all presidential and governorship candidates must be accompanied by the names of their running mates without which the nomination is invalid, warning that all nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines. Professor Yakubu said that a nomination centre has been set up at the commission’s headquarters to receive and process all nominations by political parties, including dedicated telephone lines to serve as help desk for any party that may need assistance.

 

“All nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines. The portal will automatically shut down at 6pm on Friday, 17th June 2022 for national elections and 6pm on Friday 15th July 2022 for state elections. With this innovation, the commission has eliminated the physical interface between party officials and Inec staff for the purpose of submitting the list of candidates for the 2023 general election,” Professor Yakubu added.

 

Individually,  the 18 registered political parties are expected to submit 1,520 nominees for all the positions being contested in next year's elections. This means that collectively, the total number of candidates registered will be 27,360 for all the parties.

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