Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has stated that all political party primaries will be closed on Thursday, June 9, 2022.
The Commission further stated that it intends to begin uploading the names of nominated candidates on the INEC portal.
INEC made the announcement during a meeting of State Resident Electoral Commissioners at the Commission’s headquarters on Thursday.
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, beginning on Friday, June 10th, and ending on June 17th, according to INEC Chairman Yakubu.
The upload of the list of candidates for state elections, particularly governors and their deputies, as well as candidates for the State Assembly, is set for July 1-15, 2022.
Yakubu warned that the nomination portal would shut down automatically at 6 p.m. on July 17th for national election candidates and on July 15th for state election candidates, emphasising the need of parties being proactive in responding to deadlines.
“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.
“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 stated that the Commission is responding to a request to deploy more CVR devices to needy States and LGAs in order to improve CVR in insecure areas, ensuring that no prospective registrants are left out.
