The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Monday announced that political parties can no longer withdraw or replace their governorship and state house of assembly candidates except for death.
Justifying this, INEC cited Section 35 of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended, which states that parties are not allowed to withdraw or replace candidates for gubernatorial and House of Assembly 45 days to the elections.
However, parties can be allowed to substitute the candidate (s) only of it’s in line with Section 36 which deals with demise of the candidate.
Section 35 reads: “a candidate may withdraw his candidature by notice in writing signed by him and delivered by himself to the political party that nominated him for the election and the political party shall convey such withdrawal to the commission not later than 45 days to the election.”
The governorship and state assembly elections have been slated for February 28, 2015.
Meanwhile, INEC will on Tuesday formally present copies of the Voters Register to political parties ahead of the 2015 general elections.
According to Section 20 of the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended, the Register of Voters for an election shall be published at least thirty (30) days before the elections.
In the same vein, the Timetable And Schedule of Activities for the 2015 General Elections released to the public on 24th January 2014 shows under item 10 that the Commission shall release/ publish the official Register of Voters for the election on January 13, 2015.
The Commission in accordance to Section 34 of the electoral Act shall also publish the list of nominated candidates contesting for the Presidency and National Assembly today.
The Act stipulated that this should be done 30 days before the election.
Also, the list of candidates for the offices of Governor and House of Assembly will be published on January, 27 2015 for claims and objections.
