The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released official dates for political parties to conduct primary elections ahead of the governorship election scheduled for Edo State.
TheNewsGuru. (TNG) reports INEC released the dates for the party primaries for the Edo governorship election on Thursday with charge to the political parties to play by the rules.
The sixteen (16) political parties that will partake in the Edo governorship election are Accord, Action Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Congress (APC) and the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).
Others are Allied People’s Movement (APM), Action People’s Party (APP), Boot Party (BP), Labour Party, New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), National Rescue Movement (NRM), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), People’s Redemption Party (PRP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), Young Progressives Party (YPP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
According to the schedule released by INEC, ADC will hold its primary election on the 16th of February 2024, while Accord and APC will hold their primary elections on the 17th.
Similarly, while ZLP will hold its party primaries on the 18th; Labour Party and PDP will hold their primaries on the 22nd, and APGA and NNPP will hold theirs on the 23rd.
Political parties to hold their primaries on deadline day are AA, APM, APP, BP, NRM, PRP, SDP and YPP.
Play by the rules, don’t shift ‘goal post’ – INEC cautions political parties
Meanwhile, INEC has cautioned the 16 political parties to play by the rules in conducting the primary elections.
According to the Commission, primaries must take place within the State between 1st and 24th of February 2024.
In a statement by Sam Olumekun, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, the electoral umpire stressed the political parties have notified the Commission of their intention to participate in the election as well as their preferred modes and dates of primaries.
The statement reads: “As the Commission is set to deploy its monitoring teams, political parties are hereby reminded that Edo State is the Constituency for the election.
“Therefore, primaries must take place within the State in line with Sections 84(4) and 5(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“Parties are urged 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 vaild 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”.