By
Bilesanmi Abayomi
The Labour Party candidate’s name is not on the final list of contestants published by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday.
The Kosofe Post reports that Hon. Sulyman Olayiwola Mamood, who early declared his interest in the race but later withdrawn as a result of international engagements, has led to conflicting reports over the candidate of the party between Mr. Gideon Kyegh and Mrs. Maimunat Olubando Okoya.
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While Gideon has been setting up structures and coordinating the affairs of the party in Kosofe, Olubando supporters last week stormed the social media to push for her as the candidate of the party.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday published the final lists of presidential and National Assembly candidates of the 18 registered political parties in the country.
Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, said the commission at its weekly meeting held on Tuesday approved the final list of candidates for national elections (presidential, senatorial and federal constituencies) pursuant to Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 and item 8 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election.
He said, “In terms of gender distribution, 3,875 candidates are male, made up of 35 for presidential and vice presidential; 1,008 for the senate; and 2,832 for the house of representatives. Similarly, 381 women are running for office, including one for president, 92 for the Senate, and 288 for the House of Representatives. There are also 11 people with disabilities (PWDs) in the race.”
Okoye said the publication of the full names and addresses of all nominated candidates follows the political parties’ conduct of primaries and completion of the nomination exercise.
He also said that at the end of the process, the personal particulars of all nominated candidates were displayed in their constituencies nationwide as provided by Section 29(3) of the Electoral Act.
“Subsequently, validly nominated candidates had the opportunity to voluntarily withdraw their candidature by notice in writing and personally deliver such notice to the political party that nominated them for the election.
“Thereafter, political parties substituted such candidates under Section 31 of the Electoral Act for which the last day was July 15, 2022 for national elections and August 12, 2022 for state elections, as clearly provided in item 6 of the Commission’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities. Thereafter, no withdrawal or substitution of candidates is allowed except in the event of death as provided in Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act or pursuant to an order of a court of competent jurisdiction.
“The list published today (Tuesday) contains the names of candidates validly nominated for national elections at the close of party primaries and the period earmarked for withdrawal and substitution of candidates,” Okoye said.
He said that the final list of candidates for state elections (governorship and state constituencies) will be published on October 4th, 2022, as already indicated on the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 general elections.
He said, “We note the fact that not all the political parties conducted primaries in all the constituencies, submitted the particulars of candidates that emerged from valid primaries or substituted their candidates after fresh primaries within 14 days as provided in section 33 of the Electoral Act.
“This has resulted in numerous lawsuits, some of which are still ongoing.” Where the commission was served with court orders by aggrieved aspirants or candidates before the publication of this list, these have been indicated under the remark column.”