Sixty-three out of the Nigeria’s 91 registered political parties will have presidential candidates in the 2019 general elections as they have notified the Independent National Electoral Commission of their plans to conduct primaries to elect candidates.
Towards this end, the parties have requested the electoral body to send observers to witness the conduct of the primaries as required by the Electoral Act 2010 (As amended)
A highly placed INEC source, who pleaded anonymity because he was not authorised to make the details public, revealed this in Abuja, on Saturday.
The source gave analysis as follows, “So far, 80 of the 91 political parties have indicated intention to conduct primaries. Only 10 parties have issued notices for FCT elections for the six Area council chairmen and 62 Councillorship seats. 63 parties have given notices for presidential primaries,”
According to the source, the Smart Card Reader would be used for the 2019 elections regardless of whether or not the Executive and Legislative arms of government were able to resolve crisis over proposed amendments to the Electoral Act amendment bill which the President has declined assent.