Ahead of the Anambra governorship election scheduled to hold on 8th November, 2025, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has urged political parties to strictly adhere to their schedule on the conduct of primary elections.
INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun in a statement issued Thursday, said sudden changes to the dates, venues and modes of the primaries lead to avoidable demobilisation and remobilisation of our monitoring staff, thereby disrupting the Commission’s workflow.
He added that this also adds to the cost of monitoring primaries and the overall conduct of elections and electoral activities.
Olumekun revealed that only 12 out of the 19 registered political parties have submitted the detailed schedules of their primaries.
He, therefore, urged the seven parties that are yet to submit the required information should do so immediately.
He recalled that in line with the provision of Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, the Commission published the Notice of Election on 13th November 2024, over 360 days before the date fixed for the election.
Olumekun explained that by the provision of the timetable and schedule of activities for the election, the conduct of primaries for nomination of candidates by political parties commences in the next two weeks — 20th March 2025 and ends on 10th April 2025.
He said: “As agreed at our last consultative meeting with Political Parties held in January, doing so early will enable the Commission to plan for the effective monitoring of the primaries in line with the provision of Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The seven parties that are yet to submit the required information are hereby reminded to do so in earnest.”