INEC Announces Closure Of All Party Primaries Over 2023

Prof Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced the closure of all political party primaries effective Thursday, June 9, 2022.

The Commission has also disclosed plans to start uploading names of nominated candidates of parties to the INEC portal.

INEC made the disclosure during a meeting of State Resident Electoral Commissioners at the Commission’s headquarters on Thursday.

The INEC Chairman, Yakubu informed that beginning from Friday, the 10th, to the 17th of June, the 18 political parties in the country are required to upload names and other details of their candidates, including those of presidents and their running mates, Senatorial and federal House of Representatives Candidates.

Similarly, the upload of the list of candidates for state elections, namely, Governors and their Deputies and State Assembly candidates is scheduled for July 1-15th, 2022.

Emphasizing the need for parties to be proactive in responding to deadlines, Yakubu cautioned that the nomination portal would shut down automatically by 6 pm on the 17th for national election candidates and 15th July for those of state election

“All Political Parties are required to upload the details of their candidates for each constituency to the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP). To achieve this objective, four officials recommended by each of the 18 political parties were trained on the procedure for uploading the nomination forms to the dedicated web portal. Confidential Access Codes to the portal have already been given to each Political Party to facilitate the uploading of its nominations.

For emphasis, the Commission wishes to remind Political Parties that only the names of candidates that emerged from democratic primaries as provided by Sec. 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 shall be submitted to the Commission. Similarly, 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 6.00pm (1800hrs) on Friday 17th June 2022 for national elections and 6.00pm (1800hrs) on Friday 15th July 2022 for State elections.

“Nomination Centre has been set up here at the Commission’s Headquarters to receive and process all nominations by political parties, including dedicated telephone lines to serve as Help Desk for any Party that may need assistance”.

The INEC Chairman said the Commission is responding to a request to deploy more CVR machines to needy States and LGAs to enhance CVR in areas disrupted by insecurity, assuring that no prospective registrants would be left out.