Candidates' Lists :INEC makes U-turn, drops Akala, Chime

Newsdiaryonline  Wed Feb 9,2011

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC ) has revealed more shocking twist  to the unfolding lists of candidates eligible to contest the 2011 elections.The Commission on Tuesday said that the  inclusion of Governors Adebayo Alao Akala and Sullivan Chime of Enugu State on the candidates' lists being displayed was an error.  

INEC’s National Commissioner in charge of Legal Services, Philip Umeadi Jnr while  speaking with journalists at INEC national headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday night, delivered a bombshell when he said  that it was erroneous for INEC to endorse the nominations of the two governors because they were subject of litigations. According to Umeadi, the error occurred because the judgement against Governor Chime came late. 

" By the time the judgment was served on us, we had received the nomination list for Enugu State. Ideally, in deference to that judgment, we ought not to have published it, so that publication was an error and that was why it was removed.

Umeadi Jr  said further that the court order was served on INEC at about January 31 while INEC had received the candidates’ list from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on January 21, 2011, through   a letter dated January 17, 2011.  

 He added that a similar error occurred with respect to the case of Akala of Oyo state. "Again the same thing happened in Oyo State where there was also a judgment with respect to Oyo. That again, was published in error.

“We had so many judgments (court orders) and I tried to explain the rationale behind the on-going exercise, when I spoke recently. The Form 001 and CF002 are merely forms which candidates the political parties intend to sponsor for the election submitted to INEC.  

"We have now taken these forms to their constituencies, published them in the constituencies for the constituents to know the particular candidates to raise objections with respect to their qualifications for the respective offices, which they intend to contest."

More petitions and court orders are flooding his office and that of the INEC chairman,he said.

 Umeadi Jr said further that  INEC expects  that after the publication of candidates’ lists and their particulars in compliance with the law, those aggrieved  can now go to court in line with their democratic rights.

Under the Electoral Act, people who may file  petitions to INEC include those  who have been unjustly substituted; those who won primaries and their names were not forwarded by their parties or people who, for one reason or the other, believe that some candidates are not qualified to be in the position that they are aspiring, either by character, age, past convictions or other reasons. Hear Umeadi Jnr:"So ideally, it is now that we are supposed to be receiving the complaints that we have been receiving. You know the system operates not only here in INEC but everywhere because the system appears porous, so the candidates themselves get to know what the position is before we are informed.

He concluded that: “ some of them are pro-active in either going to court or presenting their petitions before we received the list. I can confirm that even before the list came, we have received tons of petitions here, and by the time we received the candidates lists (from the political parties), we discovered that they knew what they were talking about,”