NOMINATIONS: 3 PARTIES SUBMIT LIST TO INEC

As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) draws curtain today on the submission of list of their party flag bearers for the forthcoming elections, only three out of the 63 registered political parties have forwarded their nominees to the commission.

This is even as INEC is applying administrative bail out to improvise funds for the extension of the ongoing voters' registration, which mainly would be spent on payment of registration officers and purchase of equipment needed in the light of one-week extension announced by the commission for registration.

This is in lieu of legislative process needed for the appropriation of the money by the Federal Government. INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega had told the lawmakers that his commission would need about N6.6 billion to carry out the one week extension.

Sources told Daily Sun yesterday that only three of the parties had forwarded their list of candidates to the commission as at yesterday with the majority of them expected to turn in theirs today. The delay by some of the parties in presenting their list, it was gathered, was due to the resolution of controversies that trailed some of the primaries in some states. This development necessitated rerun primaries which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ordered in some of the states.

The rerun, some of which were held on Saturday, is in defiance of INEC's ruling that all primaries had ended by January 15, while only the submission of lists of candidates would close January 31 and that any rerun primaries after that date was unacceptable. The PDP on the other hand had capitalised on the provision of the Electoral Act, which says the INEC has no power to reject list of candidates submitted by the parties.

The INEC had issued the political parties Forms CF001 and CF002, on which the names of the candidates would be filled and returned to INEC headquarters by January 31. It was learnt the INEC had gone ahead with the extension, by one week, of the voter's registration in the hope that the National Assembly would soon initiate the process of approval and release of money to fund the extension.

INEC Chairman's Chief Press Secretary, Kayode Idowu told Daily Sun last night that the commission would be handling the sourcing of funds administratively while the legislative approval was being awaited. He said the issue of fund should not stand in the way of ensuring that the voters were duly registered so that they could participate in the April elections.

'We will handle the issue of money administratively while the legislative process is being awaited.'