Mahmood Yakubu, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has announced that 16 out of 19 registered political parties have expressed interest in contesting the upcoming governorship election in Ondo State, scheduled for 16 November.
This announcement was made during the First Regular Quarterly Consultative Meeting With Political Parties For 2024, which took place at the INEC Conference Room in Abuja on Tuesday.
Yakubu disclosed that the party primaries for the Ondo State governorship election are set to commence in two weeks, starting on 6 April and concluding on 27 April. He revealed that 16 of the 19 political parties had indicated their intention to participate in the election.
He urged the political parties to adhere strictly to their proposed dates and modes of primaries, stating, “Frequent changes, as we witnessed recently during the Edo state primaries, are not only disruptive but costly. The Commission cannot mobilise, demobilise and remobilise our officials for the monitoring of party primaries at the convenience of political parties. Parties should stick to their proposed dates and modes of primaries for certainty and optimal deployment of resources.”
Yakubu also reminded the parties that, according to the timetable and schedule of activities for the election, they have 20 days to upload the list and personal particulars of their candidates to the INEC portal.
He further advised the parties to avoid contentious primaries, saying, “Increasingly, the conduct of parallel primaries and the emergence of multiple candidates is a frequent occurrence. So, too, is the tendency to grant waivers to candidates who were a few days earlier card-carrying members of other political parties and nominating such persons to the Commission as their candidates for election."
Yakubu expressed concern over the unnecessary litigation among party members that these infractions often lead to, noting that the legal fees and cost of producing Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents could be used more productively in other electoral activities by the political parties and the Commission. He stressed the need to find a solution to this situation.
In the meantime, the national secretariats of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) have initiated the processes guiding their respective primaries. Nomination and expression of interest forms have already been advertised, and intraparty campaigns have intensified, particularly in these two leading political parties.