Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Prof Mahmood Yakubu has said that pre-election cases and orders of the court on the nomination process by political parties is slowing down the printing of sensitive materials for the forthcoming governorship elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa states.
Yakubu spoke at a meeting with political parties ahead of the elections scheduled to hold on November 11. He said the reprinting of the materials in compliance with court orders within a short period is not only expensive but very challenging.
The INEC chair said although the commission has already published the final list of candidates for the three states, four recent court orders have compelled the commission to review the list. He added: “The commission is concerned about the spate of recent judgments and orders of the court in respect of the nomination, substitution or disqualification of candidates after all the sensitive materials have been printed.
“The reprinting of the materials in compliance with court orders within a short period is not only expensive but the management of the process very challenging. Although the commission has already published the final list of candidates for the three states, four recent court orders have compelled us to review the list.
“These changes have been reflected in the updated list of parties and candidates on our website. However, this decision is without prejudice to any pending appeal by the affected candidates or their political parties.”
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He said with just a little over two weeks to the election, the commission is at the concluding stages of its preparations. He added: “This is the first time that the commission will be conducting three off-cycle governorship elections simultaneously across different geo-political zones.
“This is made possible by the coincidence of the end of the tenure of the current holders of the offices which fall within the constitutional timeframe of not earlier than 150 days or later than 30 days before the expiration of their terms of office as enshrined in Section 178(2) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended).”
Prof Yakubu added said the commission has delivered all non-sensitive materials for the elections to the three states, adding that the training of various categories of ad hoc staff is currently ongoing. He added: “We have made the soft copies of the complete register of voters available to all political parties participating in the elections. We conducted the mock accreditation of voters and the upload of results to our IReV portal using the BVAS and stakeholder engagements are ongoing.”