EDO2024: 16 Political Parties Warming Up For Governorship Post

Sixteen political parties in Edo State have notified the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC of their intention to participate in the forthcoming November 16th Governorship election with their preferred modes and dates of primaries.

Mr Sam Olumekun, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee in a signed statement states that the electoral umpire is set to deploy its monitoring teams to monitor the Primaries.

The electoral umpire reminds the political parties that since Edo State is the Constituency for the election, all primaries must take place within the State in line with Sections 84(4) and 5(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.

It also urges Parties to avoid unnecessary postponement, arbitrary changes of venues of their primaries, wholesale change of delegates’ list or the submission of names that did not emerge from valid primaries as candidates for the election.

“They should also avoid rancorous primaries that lead to the breakdown of law and order often as a result of non-adherence to the provision of their constitutions and guidelines.

These are some of the issues that lead to a large number of pre-election litigations.”

The Commission reiterated that the scheduled dates and modes of primaries proposed by the political parties have been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms for public information.

The Time Table and schedule of activities released by INEC indicate that Party Primaries are supposed to take place from the 1st to the 24th of this month and by Section 82(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, political parties are required to give the Commission at least 21 days’ notice before the date fixed for the conduct of their Primaries.