Independent National Electoral Commission says two political parties, the African Action Congress (AAC) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), are yet to upload a single nomination to the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP).
This is against the provision in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election released by the Commission on 26th February 2022, which requires that all political parties that conducted valid primaries to nominate their candidates for Governorship, Deputy Governorship and State Assembly elections via the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal from 1st to 15th July 2022.
In a statement signed by the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC, Festus Okoye, the commission explained that it “has processed 6,995 nomination forms (EC9) uploaded by 16 out of 18 political parties for the constituencies where they intend to sponsor candidates. However, two political parties, the African Action Congress (AAC) and New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), are yet to upload a single nomination to the portal.
“The Commission hereby reminds all political parties that they have three days left to upload their list of candidates to the ICNP. The deadline is Friday 15th July 2022. The portal will automatically shut down at 6.00pm on that date”INEC warned.
Meanwhile, the Commission noted that it has continuously responded to requests for the issuance of Certified True Copies (CTCs) of documents mainly arising from the conduct of party congresses, primaries and nomination of candidates.
INEC revealed that the number of requests processed has now risen to one million, six hundred and sixty-two thousand, nine hundred and eighty seven (1,662,987) pages of documents.
The Commission however expressed sadness over the non-collection of 147 out of 476 requests processed, involving 5,646 pages by applicants, despite the Commission’s effort,
The Commission therefore appealed to prospective litigants to come forward and collect the certified copies of the documents.
