The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has eventually agreed to extend the deadline given for various political parties to conduct primaries ahead of the 2023 general elections.
A press statement by the commission’s Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, on Saturday said the political parties now have between June 4 and 9, 2022 to conduct and conclude primaries.
“I hereby reiterate the position of the Commission that there will be no review of the timelines. There are so many inter-related activities that are associated with the timelines which must be carried out.
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“Any review to extend the timeline for one activity will affect other activities and put unnecessary pressure on political parties and the Commission.
“This will ultimately result in more complications than what the extension seeks to achieve. Therefore, the Commission will not review the timelines,” the INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, reiterated two weeks ago.
However, bowing to pressure from the political parties, the INEC Chair, in a statement released on Friday night, said an extension of the date would not hurt its schedule of activities.
As explained by the chairman, the newly approved six-day extension will afford the parties to conclude outstanding primaries and prepare the list of candidates and upload their affidavits on the commission’s portal.
He said the extension covers political parties who have not conducted their primaries.
“However, based on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, the parties have now pleaded with the Commission to use the 6 days between 4th and 9th June 2022 to conclude outstanding primaries and prepare to upload the list of candidates and their affidavits on the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal. The Commission did not schedule any specific activity during this period. The idea is to simply give parties time to compile the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates before uploading the same to the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal from 10th – 17th June 2022.
“The Commission has decided to allow the request of the political parties since the six-day period does not conflict with the next scheduled activity which is the submission of the list of nominated candidates or any of the subsequent timelines which remain sacrosanct. However, this request is granted in respect of outstanding primaries only without prejudice to those already concluded by political parties. The Commission will not monitor already concluded primaries,” Mr Yakubu explained.