INEC provides clarification on conduct of supplementary elections

All additional elections arising from the February 25 Presidential and National Assembly elections will not be held concurrently with the governorship election scheduled for Saturday, INEC has said.

The commission disclosed this in a statement by its spokesman, Festus Okoye, on Friday.

While the results of some constituencies during the National Assembly elections were declared inconclusive, others were delayed for other reasons.

Mr. Okoye said the only elections that will be held concurrently with the state elections are the pending Enugu East Senatorial District and Esan Central / Esan West / Igueben Federal Constituencies in Edo State.

The Labor Party candidate in the Enugu East election, Oyibo Chukwu, died days before the February 25 election prompting INEC to postpone the election.

Also, on the day of the election, INEC announced the postponement of the Esan Central / Esan West / Igueben House of Representatives election due to the absence of the Labor Party logo on the ballot paper for the election.

Mr. Okoye said the commission would soon announce the next date for the by-election.

“Our attention is drawn to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has been drawn to news reports giving the impression that the Commission intends to hold additional elections arising from the Presidential and National Assembly elections together with the Governor and State Assembly elections to be held on Saturday 18 March 2023. This is not true. ,” he said.

“The Commission has not yet scheduled the supplementary elections arising from the Presidential and National Assembly elections. For clarity, the supplementary elections will be held on a date to be announced by the Commission immediately after the Governorship and State Assembly elections.

“However, this should not be confused with the two National Assembly elections which were earlier suspended by the Commission and rescheduled to be held at the same time as the Governorship and State Assembly elections. The first was the Enugu East Senatorial District election which was contested for the Labor Party to conduct a fresh primary election to replace deceased candidate in accordance with the provisions of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022. The second is Esan Central / Esan West / Igueben Federal Constituency of Edo State after the problem with the ballot papers for the Election. This is not a by-election but a primary which is not can be done beforehand.