THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that 16 political parties will contest in Edo State’s governorship election on September 21.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, revealed this in a statement today.
“Sixteen political parties have notified the Commission of their intention to participate in the election as well as their preferred modes and dates of primaries,” he said.
“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.”
The electoral body also admonished political 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”.
INEC also warned against “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”.
