Edo 2024: 16 Political Parties to Field governorship candidates – INEC

By DADA AYOKHAI

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said 16 political parties would field candidates in the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.

The INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, disclosed this in a statement posted on the commission’s X platform on Thursday.

The parties include the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Actions Peoples Party (APP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Boot Party, Labour Party, and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), among others.

The statement read: “Sixteen (16) political parties have notified the Commission of their intention to participate in the election as well as their preferred modes and dates of primaries.

“As the Commission is set to deploy its monitoring teams, political parties are hereby reminded that Edo State is the Constituency for the election. Therefore, primaries must take place within the State in line with Sections 84(4) and 5(b) of the Electoral Act 2022.

“Parties are urged to avoid unnecessary postponement, arbitrary changes of venues of their primaries, wholesale change of delegates’ list or the submission of names that did not emerge from vaild primaries as candidates for the election.

“They should also avoid rancorous primaries that lead to the breakdown of law and order often as a result of non-adherence to the provision of their constitutions and guidelines. These are some of the issues that lead to a large number of pre-election litigations.

“The schedule (dates and modes) of primaries proposed by the political parties has been uploaded to the Commission’s website and social media platforms for public information.”