INEC Publishes Final List Of Candidates For Ondo Gubernatorial Election

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has published the final list of candidates for the Ondo State Governorship election in Southwest Nigeria.

The breakdown indicates that 17 political parties fielded candidates for the 16 November 2024 polls.

This is coming on the heels of the Commission publishing the personal particulars of the governorship candidates and their running mates in the State and Local Government offices.

The National Commissioner and chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun in a press statement, said “Seventeen (17) political parties are fielding candidates for the election. No political party has nominated a female candidate while one (1) candidate nominated by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is a person with disability (a paraplegic). The final list also gives the breakdown of the candidates by age and academic qualifications.”

Olumekun noted that the publication of the final list is in line with the provision of Section 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, and that “Two (2) political parties conducted fresh primaries to replace their earlier nominated candidates and their running mates by the deadline of 10th June 2024. The parties are the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) while five (5) parties replaced their running mates only. They are the African Action Congress (AAC), the Action Democratic Party (ADP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP)”.

He said the list has been published at the commission’s office in Akure, the state capital, and also uploaded on its website and social media platforms for public information.

Commencement of public campaign

The next stage of activities leading up to the election, after the publication of the final list of candidates is the electioneering campaign.

Sam Olumekun stated that as provided by Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, “Campaigns by political parties in public shall commence not earlier than 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours before that day.

“Therefore, Political Parties are now permitted to start their campaign in public from Wednesday 19th June 2024, and end at midnight on Thursday 14th November 2024 as indicated in items 8 and 12 of the timetable and schedule of activities for the election”.

Call to candidates

Olumekun described the campaigns as the critical phase of the election, reminding the candidates, agents, and their supporters of the provision of the law and the Commission’s guidelines governing such activity.

“For emphasis, parties shall conduct their campaigns with civility and decorum devoid of inciting language, violence, voter inducement, and other infractions per the provisions of Section 92-97 of the Electoral Act 2022”.

Emmanuel Ukoh