Electoral Act: Governors, Lawmakers, Others May Not Vote During Primary Elections

State governors, national assembly members and other elected officials may not vote during the primaries of their political parties if President Muhammadu Buhari fails to sign the amended Electoral Act into law.

Others who may be disenfranchised during the primaries, as applicable to all the 17 other political parties, include the National Working Committee members, state party chairmen and secretaries, local government chairmen, their deputies, councillors and party chairmen in the 774 local government areas.

This is as the Independent National Electoral Commission stressed that political parties were expected to submit their delegates’ lists not later than seven days to the primaries.

This implies that since the APC presidential primary starts on Sunday, May 29, if the President does not sign the bill into law by Sunday (tomorrow), the political office holders, including Buhari, may not be able to vote unless they have been voted as delegates.

It also means that if the President does not sign the bill into law by today (Saturday), the political office holders in the opposition Peoples Democratic Party won’t be able to vote unless they are voted as delegates since the party already fixed its presidential primary for May 28 and 29.

INEC has stressed that the law mandates political parties to submit their delegates’ lists to the commission not later than seven days to their primaries.

This implies that for the major political parties, the APC and PDP, if they decide to adopt indirect primaries, the identified political office holders will be disenfranchised, unless they have been elected as delegates at the primaries.

Speaking on the issue, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of its Voter Education Committee, Mr Festus Okoye, said Section 82(3) of the Electoral Act, 2022 made it mandatory that the primaries must be conducted in a democratic manner and allowing for all members of the party or duly elected delegates to vote in support of candidates of their choice.

“By Article 4.5 of the commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for the Conduct of Political Party Primaries, a political party that adopts the indirect primary mode shall make available to the commission, not later than seven days to the date of the primary, the list of persons that will form the delegates that are eligible to vote for nomination of the party’s candidates to contest every eligible position.

“The list of delegates shall be accompanied by the list of aspirants and the list of the party’s electoral panel conducting the primary. Some of the political parties have concluded their congresses and primaries and are waiting for the access code to upload the list and personal particulars of their nominated candidates.”

Okoye noted that the political parties were abreast of the Electoral Act and the Regulations and Guidelines of the commission, adding that any political party that failed to comply with the provisions of the Act would not be included in the election.