The All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the decision by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to extend the deadline given to political parties to upload the list of nominated candidates ahead of next year general elections.

The commission at the weekend disclosed its intention to extend its timeline till tomorrow (Tuesday)

INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, in a statement noted that the commission’s review of the deadline was based on request by the leadership of forum of existing political parties, the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), which made case for political parties unable to upload the names and personal particulars of their candidates within the scheduled timeline.

The INEC National Commissioner noted that “the extension underscores the commission’s commitment to ensuring inclusivity in its practices while acting within the ambit of the law.”

The statement further urged the affected political parties to take advantage of the window of the extension.

But speaking with Nigerian Tribune in an exclusive interview on Sunday, National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Barrister Felix Morka faulted the commission’s decision, as he accused the electoral body of succumbing to pressures from opposition parties.

He said: “The APC, even though we had to deal with the bulk of people competing on our platforms, we fielded candidates for all the positions that will be contested; we met the deadline that INEC imposed.

“But the pressure on INEC which has now led to extension of that deadline was at the instance of the demand by the opposition parties who had to deal with just a handful of aspirants and candidates.

“Many of these parties we are talking about don’t even have candidates for all the positions that are available to be contested. Yet, they were incapable and unable to meet INEC deadline of uploading.

“It just shows the incompetence which they demonstrate and which is why we keep saying, whatever problems that the opposition is dealing with are completely internal to the opposition. We aren’t responsible. Because tomorrow, it won’t shock me if the opposition party will again allege that the APC is the reason they couldn’t upload! The allegation, the idea has always been that the APC has been the one manipulating INEC and all of that. Now, look at what has happened?

“It is the same opposition parties who brought pressures to be on INEC to change the deadline. If APC was so good at manipulating INEC, it would have been in APC interest to have INEC stand its ground to say, “we will not extend,” in order to shortchange the parties from uploading their candidates but we didn’t do that. We simply made the deadline and walked away.

“So, I think Nigerians must begin to see that the problem with these parties is that they are grossly incompetent and unprepared to govern this country and why we are confident that Nigerians won’t offer their votes to these people who clearly don’t have the capacity to lead.”

Morka, who clarified that the ruling party was not drawing battle line with the electoral body, however, appealed to the Commission to stop tolerating what he called the incompetence of the opposition parties.

“INEC is a regulatory body, we in APC, we don’t second-guess INEC. We respect the authority of INEC to do what it thinks is in its best interest of the process and of the parties but my remark just simply underscores again the level of tardiness and incompetence of the opposition parties. Even in their very small numbers, that they are dealing with, they still couldn’t manage effectively within the time INEC has stipulated. They then resort to a plea for extension, whereas we met our deadline, concluded the process on a scale that is bigger than any other party in this contest,” he said.

Why INEC moved presidential, NASS candidates’ submission –IPAC

The National Chairman of IPAC, Dr. Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, has opened up on the reasons why the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) extended the deadline for political parties to submit the list of candidates.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, Dr. Dantalle said IPAC appealed to INEC to extend the submission deadline in order to recover time lost during the first three days of the exercise, when parties were unable to upload details of their presidential and National Assembly candidates.

He said: “When it (INEC Candidate Nomination Portal, ICNP) started, you know the technology and you don’t control the internet, it is not the fault of INEC, the first three days, political parties could not upload, even though the codes were available.

“When this happened, we now appeal to the leadership of INEC to see how they can ensure that nobody is disenfranchised. So, the leadership of INEC listened, especially the Chairman of the Commission (Professor Joash Amupitan). He did so well to see that political parties were accommodated and nobody is disenfranchised. It is a welcome development. And we appreciate it.”

PDP confirms successful uploading of candidates

. We haven’t had any issues -LP

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has confirmed the successful uploading of the names of its presidential candidate and the candidates for National Assembly positions to the portal of INEC ahead of the 2027 polls.

The PDP disclosed on Sunday that it met the July 11 deadline in spite of the extension granted by INEC.

The NWC, which is chaired by Honourable Abdulrahman Mohammed, described the completion of the exercise on Sunday as “another milestone.”

“I am pleased to inform all PDP members and Nigerians that our great party, under my leadership, has successfully uploaded the names of our presidential candidate, his running mate, and our National Assembly candidates onto the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal,” Mohammed stated on Sunday.

He explained that it demonstrated the commitment of the PDP to contest the 2027 polls, adding that the party was now looking forward to also concluding the uploading of nominations for governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections.

“This is a clear demonstration of our commitment to the promise we made that, under my leadership, the PDP will fully participate in the 2027 General Elections. Today, we have taken another decisive step towards fulfilling that promise,” he said.

The Nigerian Tribune had reported on Friday that the PDP and the Labour Party (LP) were in a race to meet up with the deadline, 48 hours to the initial July 11 deadline.

As of Wednesday, the LP had uploaded “90 percent” of the candidates for the National Assembly offices and the lone presidential position, while the PDP gave assurances to achieve “full compliance” by the deadline.

Investigations showed that the LP certified about 1,211 candidates to contest offices in the 2027 elections, covering 99 senatorial candidates (of 109 seats), 307 House of Representatives candidates (of 360 seats), and 776 State House of Assembly candidates (of 993 seats).

The PDP is also contesting all the available positions across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in addition to the presidency.

The two political parties had told the newspaper that the exercise had been smooth-sailing so far and devoid of controversy and allegations of substitution of the names of winners by party officials.

The National Publicity of the LP, Mr Ken Asogwa, also confirmed that the party did not face hitches in uploading the names of candidates. (TRIBUNE)

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