The Independent National Electoral Commission on Thursday asked the presidential and governorship candidates of the 18 registered political parties to pick and submit the lists of their running mates in the next one week.
The commission said that while the conventions and primaries of candidates by political parties for the 2023 general election, ended on Thursday, the nomination of the candidates and their running mates commenced the following day and would end a week later.
The Chairman of INEC, Prof Mahmood Yakubu, said this on Thursday in Abuja at a meeting with the resident electoral commissioners.
He said, “For the next one week from tomorrow June 10, all political parties are required to submit their lists of candidates for national elections (presidential/vice presidential, senatorial and house of representatives) latest by Friday June 17.
“For state elections (governorship/deputy governorship and state houses of assembly), the list of candidates shall be uploaded from 1st to July 15 as already provided in the timetable and schedule of activities for the 2023 general election already released by the commission.”
Yakubu also said that all political parties were required to upload the details of their candidates for each constituency to the INEC candidate nomination portal.
The INEC chairman said that to achieve this objective, four officials recommended by each of the 18 political parties were trained on the procedure for uploading the nomination forms to the dedicated web portal.
“Confidential Access Codes to the portal have already been given to each political party to facilitate the uploading of its nominations.
“For emphasis, the commission wishes to remind political parties that only the names of candidates that emerged from democratic primaries as provided by Sec. 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 shall be submitted to the commission,” he said.
He emphasised that the list of all presidential and governorship candidates must be accompanied by the names of their running mates (that is vice presidential and deputy governorship candidates) without which the nomination is invalid, warning that all nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines.
Yakubu said, “All nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines. The portal will automatically shut down at 6.00pm (1800hrs) on Friday June 17 2022 for national elections and 6.00pm (1800hrs) on Friday July 15 2022 for state elections.
“With this innovation, the commission has eliminated the physical interface between party officials and INEC staff for the purpose of submitting the list of candidates for the 2023 general election”, he said.
