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Accuses Electoral Body of Interfering with Party’s Affairs
- Safiu Kehinde
The Labour Party youths have demanded for the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) reinstatement of the party’s candidates in the list of candidates to contest for the bye-elections slated to hold this month.
Prince Kennedy Ahanotu, the party’s National Youth Leader, made the demand in a statement issued on Thursday.
Ahanotu had in the statement accused INEC of interfering with the party’s internal democracy while calling out the election umpire over the omission of Labour Party’s candidates from the list of contenders for the August bye-elections.
The Labour Party youth leader described the act as rascality and pure exhibition of impunity against an established political institution like the party.
He accused the Prof. Mahmood Yakubu-led commission of selectively working with the Labour Party, deciding the elections to monitor and the ones not to monitor.
Ahanotu further maintained that INEC has no authority to exclude candidates from participating in the upcoming bye-elections.
“They attended our party primary in Anambra after the supreme court judgement. They again, on the last day of nomination, gave the Abure led Labour Party the code to nominate the governorship candidate for Anambra State in July.
“The same INEC one month down the line has omitted the party’s candidates for the August bye-election.
“If we may ask, how long does it take INEC to evaluate a clear Supreme Court judgement that they were not party to despite having under her employment many qualified lawyers and a full legal department after four months???
“INEC owes Nigerians a big explanation of ‘at what point does Labour Party stop having leadership’??? INEC must tell Nigerians why they have been atrociously interfacing directly with candidates of political parties instead of the political parties itself.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) does not have the legal powers to exclude Labour Party’s candidates from participating in the upcoming bye-elections.
“According to Section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, 2022, political parties are required to conduct their primaries and submit a list of candidates to INEC with due notification of INEC on the dates of the primaries, and of course it is at the prerogative of INEC to attend or not.” He said
While reiterating INEC’s roles which is to oversee the electoral process and ensuring compliance with the law, the LP youth leader held that the commission does not have the power to interfere with the internal affairs of political parties or exclude candidates without justification.
He thereafter demanded for the reinstatement of the omitted candidates.
Also contained in Labour Party youth’s demands was INEC’s non-interference with party’s internal affairs and an end to the commission’s direct engagement of members of the party
“We demand INEC to immediately without further delay, include Labour Party candidates on the ballot within 72 hours to enable our candidates to prepare for the election.
“We demand that henceforth, INEC should stop responding to both elected and non-elected members of political parties as it falls outside their constitutional provisions to deal with groups or individual members of political parties. INEC is backed by law to interfere and regulate political parties, not their members.
“Every political party has their internal mechanism for conflict resolution, and parties are built on the discipline of its members. We must support party supremacy as former candidates of the party cannot be given the leverage to hijack or suffocate the party that nominated them for elections.
“We demand that INEC should stop forthwith interfering or meddling with Labour Party internal democracy.” the Labour Party youths demanded.