Peoples Democratic Party yesterday confirmed that the super delegates or statutory delegates would not vote at the state Houses of Assembly and House of Representatives’ primaries of the party scheduled to take place today (Sunday) as they were not elected as delegates.
The party stated that they were not elected for the 2022 primary elections.
The main opposition party confirmed this in a statement issued yesterday titled: “Use of elected delegates for the primaries and national convention,” by its National Organising Secretary, Mr. Umar Bature.
“By Section 84(8) of the Electoral Act, 2022, delegates to vote at the indirect primaries and National Convention of political parties to elect candidates for elections shall be those democratically elected for that purpose only.
“Consequently, those qualified and eligible to vote as delegates in the forthcoming primaries and National Convention of our great party, the PDP are the three ad hoc delegates per ward, elected at the ward congresses, and one national delegate per local government, elected at the Local Government Area Congresses.
“Furthermore, the NWC wishes to inform our party members that the state Houses of Assembly primaries to elect our state Houses of Assembly candidates, earlier scheduled for Saturday, May 21, 2022, will now hold on Sunday, May 22, 2022, from 8:00 am to 12 noon; while the House of Representatives primaries to elect our House of Representatives candidates will also hold on Sunday, May 22, 2022, from 2:00 pm.
“All aspirants, critical stakeholders, leaders, and teeming members of our party should please take note,” Bature explained.
By implications, only 326,081 delegates elected in 28 states and FCT during the three-man delegate elections will vote across 36 states to elect governorship, and members of House of Representatives candidates will vote as from today.
There are 8,813 wards in Nigeria multiplied by 28 states where the governorship elections will take place.
Similarly, only 810 delegates elected in the 774 local government areas and area councils of the FCT in the one-man delegate election will decide the PDP presidential flag bearer.
This has led to calls to shift the primaries to enable President Buhari to sign into law the amendment to section 84 (8) of the Electoral Act.
For instance, speaking at the Round table conference of the Abuja School of Politics and Social Thoughts, Professor Sam Amadi, who was the former Chairman of the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof. Udenta Udenta and Kelechi Azubuike accused the members of the National Assembly of cutting their face to spite the nose.
The trio of Sam Amadi, Udenta Udenta, and Kelechi Azubuike said that by the old Section 84 (8) waiting to be signed into law, the federal makers cannot even vote at the congresses and presidential primaries because they were not specifically elected for that purpose.
To salvage the situation, they appealed to INEC to extend the datelines for the political parties to elect their flag bearers.
They also appealed to INEC to alternately issue a guideline as a regulator to guide the political parties on the issue of section 84 (8).
