Ahead of a final list of candidates to be released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the electoral umpire has insisted that no candidate will be fielded by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara for the Governorship, National and State Assembly elections.
This was reaffirmed in a statement issued by the commission on Wednesday, January 30.
According to the communique, “On the whole, there are 1, 066 candidates for the governorship elections, 14, 583 for the State Assembly elections and 806 for the FCT Area Council elections broken down into 105 Chairmanship candidates and 701 councillorship candidates”.
The statement further clarified that the commission reviewed the situation of the APC in the state, noting that there are two rulings on the matter (State and Federal).
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According to INEC, a State High Court in Gusua ruled clearly that APC in Zamfara conducted primaries contrary to the position of the commission, on the other hand, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the party did not conduct valid primaries and therefore is not eligible to field candidates for the elections.
The electoral umpire had earlier said that it will release a final list of candidates for the governorship, state Houses of Assembly and FCT area council elections today, January 31, 2019.
The chairman of the commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu said the list will be published in all the state offices of the commission across the country and on the commission’s website.
He said this at the swearing-in ceremony of the new Resident Electoral Commissioner in Bayelsa State, Monday Udo on Wednesday.
