INEC gives parties June 27 deadline to resolve disputes on Edo gubernatorial election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has issued Saturday, June 27, 2020, deadline to all political parties in Edo State to resolve all disputes relating to the State’s September 19, 2020 governorship.
Festus Okoye, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, INEC, in a release on Tuesday, said this was part of the fallout from the Commission’s meeting to deliberate on the Edo State gubernatorial election.
He disclosed that all parties are required to submit the list of their candidates for the election and affidavits of validly nominated candidates by 6 pm on Monday, June 29, 2020.
According to Okoye, the Commission conducts a training programme for Liaison Officers nominated by all the registered Political Parties on the use of the INEC Portal for uploading nomination forms of candidates, as part of its commitment to deepen the use of technology in elections.
“Political Parties should note that the organisation and scheduling of various activities and processes leading to the conduct of elections are complex and involve extensive and careful planning and any disruption of these processes comes at a huge cost to the nation.
“The spate and tenor of pre-election litigations and the conflicting orders emanating therefrom can harm the smooth conduct of primaries and the upcoming elections. The Commission is closely monitoring the cases arising from the administration of political parties, the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates. This notwithstanding, the Commission restates its avowed commitment to continue to obey all orders and judgements from properly constituted courts in accordance with the rule of law,” he added.
He also explained that the Commission also considered the report from the meeting of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), which recently approved a Code of Conduct and Rules of Engagement for Security Officials on Electoral Duty. The Code is signed by the Chairman of INEC, the National Security Adviser (NSA) as Co-Chairman of ICCES and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) as head of the lead agency in election security.
Okorie also mentioned that the said Code will be uploaded on the websites of the Commission, the Office of the NSA and the Nigeria Police Force on Thursday, June 25, 2020.