2019: ‘Only 7 political parties have submitted lists of candidates’- INEC

Only seven political parties have so far submitted the list of their nominated candidates for the 2019 general elections, to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 24 hours to close of submission date, it was learnt.

INEC had announced October 18th, 2018 as the last day for the political parties to submit their list.

But as at 7 pm on Tuesday, only seven political parties have complied with the rule out of 89 that informed the commission about their primaries.

The parties include: Youth Party, Hope Party, National Democratic Liberty Party, Change Advocacy Party, Peoples Progressive Party, Peoples Democratic Movement and the Democratic People’s Party.

Section 31 (1) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, states that every political party shall summit the list of their candidates not later than 60 days before the fixed date for a general election.

It states, “Every political party shall not later than 60 days before the date appointed for a general election under the provisions of this Act, submit to the Commission in the prescribed forms the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor at the elections, provided that the Commission shall not reject or disqualify candidate (s) for any reason whatsoever.”

Section 31 (2) also further stated that each of the candidates form be accompanied by an Affidavit sworn by the camp dictates at the High Court, indicating that he has fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for election into that office.

Findings also revealed that most of the political parties are waiting for the last day which is tomorrow before submitting their list.

According to a source at the Commission, some of the parties were still trying to sort out some internal issues.

The source said, “As you can see, our officials have been mostly idle since last week because only about seven political parties have submitted their lists. Even some new parties that don’t have up to 10 candidates across the country are also wasting time.

“Once it is a day to the deadline or the last day, you will see how all of them will race down to this place, putting us under undue pressure.”

Meanwhile, INEC is expected to publish the names and particulars of all nominated candidates at the constituency where they intends to contest the election within seven days of receipts of the list, according to Section 31(3) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended. To this, the name of the Presidential candidates and their vice would be published in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

It states, ” The commission shall, within 7 days of the receipt of the personal particulars of the candidates, publish same in the constituency where the candidate intends to contest the election.”

This, the Act pointed out is to make room for disclaimer, as stated in Section 31(5) “A person who has reasonable grounds to believe that any information given by a candidate in the affidavit or any document submitted by that candidate is false may file suit at the Federal High Court, High Court of a state or FCT against such person seeking a declaration that the information contained in the affidavit is false.”

Though, INEC has no power to disqualify any candidate, however, if the court determines that any of the information contained in the affidavit is false, the court shall disqualify the candidate from contesting.

Besides, a political party which presents unqualified candidate is liable to a fine of N500,000 according to Section 31(8) of the electoral Act.

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