Primaries: INEC tasks political parties to abide by guidelines of electoral act
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has charged political parties to strictly abide by the guidelines of the 2022 Electoral Act for the successful conduct of their primary elections.
Mr Kassim Gaidam, INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, Adamawa, made the call at the stakeholders meeting on the ongoing voter registration exercise and other activities on Thursday in Yola.
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He said that the commission would not tolerate acts by political parties that fail to comply with the provision of the electoral acts in the conduct of their primaries.
“We remind political parties that by the provision of section 84 (13) of Electoral Act 2022.
“Any political party that fails to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act in the conduct of its primaries shall not have a candidate for the office in respect to which there was non-compliance with the Act in the conduct of its primaries.
“This reminder is necessary to avoid unhappy consequences of any breach of the commission’s Timetable or the Electoral Act,” he said.
Gaidam appealed to all voters who registered between June and December 2021 to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).
According to him, the commission printed and delivered to the state 39,770 PVCs of genuine new registration and have been distributed to LGAs since April 19.
He added that so far, only 3,641 cards had been collected by their owners.
In his remarks, Bello Magaji, Chairman Inter-party Advisory Council (IPAC), expressed the readiness of political parties to abide by rules.
He assured that all political parties would do their best to create awareness of the need for registered voters to collect their cards.
The State Commissioner of Police (CP), Sikiru Akande, commended all political parties in the state for conducting themselves peacefully and urged them to maintain as primaries and electioneering campaigns approach.
According to him, all security agencies are united and they would provide security for successful political activities in the state.
