As the submission of presidential candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ends next Friday, the candidates of parties vying for the 2023 presidency have been directed to pick their running mates for their nominations to be valid.
The INEC Chairman further said that only candidates who emerged from democratic primaries as stipulated by the Electoral Act 2022 should be submitted to the Commission.
This is as the submission of candidates for the national election ends next week Friday.
INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, who stated this at a meeting with States Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja yesterday, said directed that a list of all presidential and governorship candidates must come with running mates without which their nomination will be invalid.
Yakubu reminded political parties that all primary elections ended yesterday, and advised them to start submitting names of candidates for national elections today, Friday, and not to wait for the deadline.
He said for State elections (Governorship/Deputy Governorship and State Houses of Assembly), the list of candidates shall be uploaded from 1st to July 15, 2022.
The INEC chairman said: All political parties are required to upload the details of their candidates for each constituency to the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal.
The list of all presidential and governorship candidates must be accompanied by the names of their running mates (i.e. vice-presidential and deputy governorship candidates), without which the nomination is invalid. All nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines.
The portal will automatically shut down at 6.00 pm (1800hrs) on Friday 17th June, 2022 for national elections and 6.00 pm (1800hrs) on Friday 15th July, 2022 for State elections.
With this innovation, the Commission has eliminated the physical interface between party officials and INEC staff for the purpose of submitting the list of candidates for the 2023 General Election.
Yakubu said one of the reasons why the meeting with the RECs was convened was to review the ongoing continuous voter registration exercise, as the June 30 deadline approaches.
