Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the deadline for the conduct of party primaries to June 9 from the initial June 3.
However, the PDP said INEC’s decision to change the timetable and schedule of primary elections was an unfair move, describing it as shifting the goal post in the middle of the game.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress has postponed its special convention for presidential primary from May 29 to June 6 as a result of INEC’s decision.
INEC said in a statement on Friday, signed by the National Commissioner in Charge of Information and Voter Education, Festus Okoye, that the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) had requested an extension of the deadline for primaries to June 10.
In a statement after a meeting between IPAC and INEC on Friday, the commission said it had granted the request of political parties to extend the deadline.
Okoye said: “Based on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election, the parties have now pleaded with the Commission to use the six-day period 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.”
Okoye said the request was granted in respect of outstanding primaries only without prejudice to those already concluded by political parties, adding that the Commission would not monitor already concluded primaries.
He added: “After the conduct of primaries, the next critical activity for political parties is the online submission of the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor which shall be accompanied by an affidavit sworn to by the candidates indicating that they fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for election into the various offices via the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal.
“Political parties are, therefore, advised to ensure that their primaries are free of rancour in order to meet the timelines for the remaining activities embodied in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election.”
SHIFTING THE GOALPOST
In response the position of PDP was made by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, who said that INEC bowing to pressure was akin to shifting the goalpost in the middle of the game.
It was gathered that the PDP National Working Committee may meet early Saturday to take a holistic position on the shifting of the timetable by INEC.
But following the decision of INEC to give political parties a week’s grace to conduct their primaries, the ruling APC has decided to postpone its presidential primary for the 2023 general elections from May 29 to June 6.
National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Felix Morka, announced this in a statement hours after INEC extended the deadline for party’s to conduct their primaries.
The short statement read, “Following the Independent National Electoral Commission’s extension of deadline for the submission of list of candidates by political parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) hereby postpones its Special Convention for Presidential Primary from Sunday, 29th-Monday, 30th of May, 2020, to Monday, 6th-Wednesday, 8th of June, 2022.”
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