Parties Submit Names of Presidential Candidates, Running Mates Ahead of June 17 Deadline

Chuks Okocha in Ado  Ekiti

All the political parties for the 2023 general elections beat the deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to submit the names of their presidential candidates and running mates at 6p.m. yesterday.

Presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was the first to submit his presidential nomination forms with the name of Alhaji Kabir Ibrahim Masari as his running mate for the 2023 Presidential election.

Tinubu, who submitted his form on Wednesday night, picked Alhaji Kabir Ibrahim Masari’s name as a place holder ahead of the deadline for parties to submit the names of their candidates for the 2023 elections.

There are reports that Tinubu would replace Masari before the election as he only dropped his name to meet INEC’s deadline.

Also, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate with his running mate, Atiku Abubakar, who on Thursday announced Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyichukwu Arthur Okowa as the Vice Presidential candidate, yesterday submitted their nomination forms early to beat the 1800 hours of June 17.

Other presidential candidates that beat the INEC deadline of June 17 18 00 hours are as follows: Accord Party, Christopher Imumolen; Action Alliance (AA), Hamza Al Mustapha; African Action Congress (AAC); Omoyele Sowore, and African Democratic Congress (ADC), Dumebi Kachikwu.

Others are All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Peter Umeadi; Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Yusuf Mamman Dantalle; Boot Party (BP), Sunday Adenuga; National Rescue Movement (NRM), Okwudili Nwa-Anyajike; New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso; Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), Kola Abiola; Social Democratic Party(SDP), Adewole Adebayo; Young Progressive Party (YPP), Prince Malik Ado-Ibrahim; and

Zenith Labour Party (ZLP), Chief Dan Nwanyanwu.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had disclosed that a portal had been dedicated to receiving the details of the candidates of the 18 Political Parties eligible to field candidates.

Prof. Yakubu emphasized that the nomination of candidates by political parties for the 2023 general election, all primaries ended Thursday 9th June 2022.

According to him, all political parties are required to submit their list of candidates for national elections (Presidential/Vice Presidential, Senatorial and House of Representatives) latest by Friday 17th June 2022. For State elections (Governorship/Deputy Governorship and State Houses of Assembly), the list of candidates shall be uploaded from 1st to 15th July 2022 as already provided in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 general election already released by the Commission.

He added, “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.

“For emphasis, the Commission wishes to remind Political Parties that only the names of candidates that emerged from democratic primaries as provided by Section 84 of the Electoral Act 2022 shall be submitted to the Commission.

“Similarly, the list of all Presidential and Governorship candidates must be accompanied by the names of their running mates (i.e. Vice Presidential and Deputy Governorship candidates) without which the nomination is invalid. All nominations must be uploaded to the portal on/or before the deadlines.

“The portal will automatically shut down at 6.00 pm (1800hrs) on Friday 17th June 2022 for national elections and 6.00 pm (1800hrs) on Friday 15th July 2022 for State elections.

 “With this innovation, the Commission has eliminated the physical interface between party officials and INEC staff for the purpose of submitting the list of candidates for the 2023 General Election.”