The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has extended the deadline for political parties to conduct their respective primary elections to 9th June 2022. This announcement was released on Friday in a statement signed by INEC’s Chairman of Information and Voter Education Committee, Barr. Festus Okoye.
According to the statement, leaders of political parties under the auspices of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) pleaded with the Commission to conclude outstanding primaries during the 6-day period from between 4th to 9th June 2022.
The statement reads in part, “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 to 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”.
The Commission disclosed that after the conduct of primaries, the online submission of the list of party candidates is the next critical activity.
INEC also stated its plans of training four (4), political party officials, from each of the eighteen (18) political parties on the effective use of the Commission’s Candidates Nomination Portal.
The statement urged political parties to submit nominees for the training because “only electronically submitted nominations will be processed”.