The stage is set for the 2023 presidential election as four major political parties including the All Progressives Congress (APC), People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) have met the deadline for the Nomination of candidates and replacement of withdrawn candidates.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had an uphill task, weekend, managing the traffic on the Nomination Portal as political parties scrambled to beat the deadline.
Although the Commission is yet to issue to release the list of the political parties that met the deadline, The Nation findings, showed that the four political parties have met the requirements.
The APC and Labour parties substituted their presidentkal running mates. The APC candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, picked former Borno Governor Kashim Shetima as his running mate after Ibrahim Masari, withdrew from the race.
Peter Obi of the Labour Party also substituted his running mate, Doyin Okupe, with Yusuf Dati Baba-Ahmed.
When contacted, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said it was still premature to come up with a comprehensive list of parties that met the deadline.
According to him the deadline for the withdrawal and replacement of withdrawn candidates for Presidential and National Assembly elections collided with the deadline for the nomination of Governorship and House of Assembly elections.
He said: “You know the window closed today at 6pm and because the window for the replacement of withdrawn candidates for Presidential and National Assembly elections and submission of list of Governorship and House of Assembly elections also closed today, our Staff have been busy sorting the documents.
“So there is no way I can tell anybody what has happened now because most of the parties waited for the last minute”.
