INEC ENGAGES PARTIES ON CONGRESSES

BEN AGANDE
ABUJA—THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, wrote the political parties warning them against the violation of the Electoral Act in the choice of their candidates for the various posts.

The commission's Director of Public Affairs, Emmanuel Umenger, who confirmed that the Commission had written the parties in the wake of the disturbing signals explained that it was part of the process of engaging them on the need to abide by the existing laws.

Umenger said the commission had been engaging the political parties as part of its responsibilities to ensure sanity in the electoral process.

He explained that INEC had been monitoring the parties and had compiled reports of all that activities in relation to the primaries, adding: 'Where none compliance is recorded, we will ask them to go back to the drawing board. We have the mandate to monitor them and take appropriate steps necessary to preserve the parties' internal democracy lack of which has been the bane of free and fair election in the country.'

'We have communicated some of the parties over the observed anomalies and mandated them to do what is right. We drew their attention to it that the conduct of party primaries should be an inclusive and participatory affair. If they fail to do that we know what next to do,' he said.