April Poll: Parties Submit List Of Candidates Monday

Source: THEWILL. - thewillnigeria.com
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INEC CHAIRMAN PROFESSOR ATTAHIRU JEGA.

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 30, (THEWILL) – Political parties have till midnight Monday, January 31, 2010, to submit to the electoral commission forms CF001 (Affidavit and credentials of candidate(s) and forms CF002 (Names of candidate(s) for Presidential, Governorship, National Assembly and State Assembly candidates).

According to the guideline earlier issued by the commission, political parties are bound to file in the forms not later than Monday 00.00 at the electoral commission’s National Headquarters in Abuja or risk not participating in the general elections.

With the primaries already concluded political parties should have no problems complying with the directive.

But it was unclear as at press time how the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would handle the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) reruns conducted over the weekend. Recall the electoral commission had reminded the party that according to its guideline for the conduct of the April poll, the deadline for party congresses was January 15, 2011.

But in defiance to INEC’s position, the PDP had gone ahead to conduct rerun elections in Bayelsa, Oyo, Delta, Kogi, Kano and Kwara States, arguing that INEC had no legal authority to stop it from doing so.

But the electoral commission did not authorize its officials to observe the reruns as authorized by law thus, setting the stage for a showdown between the commission and ruling party.

Meantime, THEWILL checks at the PDP revealed that all candidates of the party including President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and all PDP state Governors have filled out their forms and submitted same to the party headquarters as at Sunday night.

Recall that the National Organizing Secretary of the party, Prince Uche Secondus had issued a statement informing all candidates who were elected in the just concluded primaries of the PDP that the deadline for the return of their nomination forms remained Sunday January 30 2011.

Secondus said: “All nomination forms are to be collected by the chairmen of the party in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory and submitted to the office of the National Organizing Secretary, PDP National Secretariat, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.”