The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is under intense pressure from political parties and may extend the June 3 deadline for the conduct of primary elections.
This emerged at the meeting of the commission with political parties under the auspices of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) in Abuja on Friday.
Yabagi Sani, IPAC chairman appealed for a little adjustment in the timelines for the election to enable the political parties conduct seamless primary elections for the nomination of candidates for the 2023 polls.
Sani said IPAC had written a letter to INEC immediately after an interactive session with the commission and requested that it should take a second look at the timetable which is tight considering that the Electoral Act 2022 will be used for the first time, and there are bound to be mistakes.
“We feel that if we are given more time, we’ll be able to deliver on the promise of having free and fair elections as we conduct our primaries.
“This meeting is coming on the heels of the meeting which the leaders of political parties had, where we unanimously considered it very important to seek review…we are asking you to consider and give us a little adjustment in the timetable to enable carry out this very important assignment.”
Dan Nwanyanwu, national chairman of the Zenith Labour Party specifically requested that political parties should be given the window between June 3 and 9 to put their house in order.
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Nwanyanwu said: “The window he (Sani) is talking about which we want to put before you to consider and plead with you has to do with what happens between the June 3 when primaries would have ended and up to June 9 that we will start uploading what we got from the primaries.
Speaking before the meeting went into a closed-door session, Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, said IPAC’s current request was different from the earlier ones so the commission would meet after the interface and issue a statement conveying its decision.
Yakubu said: We just heard from the chairman of IPAC who on behalf of the political parties has once again requested for a review of our election timelines.
“It appears that the proposition this time around is different from the request made earlier for which the commission had responded emphatically.
“For emphasis, the request the last time was for an extension of between 37 and 60 days. On these, the position of the commission has not changed. Such a request will not be entertained in view of the overlapping activities contained in the timeline and schedule of activities already released and published.
“It appears that the parties have now presented a more defined request for what the chairman calls a little adjustment. We will now discuss further to understand the basis for requesting this little adjustment and thereafter, the commission will meet and a statement will be issued.”
