INEC SET TO CONDUCT RE-RUN, BYE-ELECTIONS FEBRUARY 2024

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has said that in order to fill the current vacancies in the state and federal legislatures, repeats and bye-elections will be held nationwide in February 2024.

This was said by INEC Chairman Prof. Mahmood Yakubu on Monday before the elections in an Abuja meeting with political party leaders.

Unless a party wants to replace a deceased candidate, only the parties and candidates that ran in the general election are involved in rerun elections. Bye-elections, however, are new elections.

Yakubu pointed out that the courts had mandated, at the conclusion of the dispute, that the commission hold new elections in 34 federal and state constituencies—11 federal, 22 state, and one for the Senate.

He said that the two elections will take place on the same day and that political parties had to have new primaries within the legally permitted time frame.

He said, “The purpose of this meeting is to brief party leaders on the Commission’s preparation for the forthcoming elections to be held early in the new year. The elections are in two categories.

“First, as the Election Petition Appeal Tribunals set up in the aftermath of the 2023 General Election gradually wind up their proceedings, the Commission is required to conduct re-run elections in some constituencies by court order.

“Secondly, the Commission is also required to conduct bye-elections to fill vacancies arising from the death or resignation of members of the National and State Houses of Assembly. The Commission intends to combine and conduct the two categories of elections on the same day, the details of which will be discussed at this meeting.

“Consequently, political parties must conduct fresh primaries within the limited period of time provided by law.”

According to the INEC Chairman, “the Commission has been directed by the Election Petition Appeal Tribunals to hold new elections in 34 seats, comprising one Senatorial District, eleven Federal seats, and twenty-two State Assembly districts, thus far.

“However, the 34 constituencies constitute 2.8% of the 1,191 petitions filed by litigants. Significantly, out of the 34 re-run elections, it is only in three cases that the Commission was ordered to conduct elections in the entire constituencies. In the other 31 constituencies, elections are to be held in a few polling units.

“I want to assure you that at the end of all the litigations, including the Governorship elections pending on appeal at the Supreme Court, the Commission will present a comprehensive analysis of the petitions, including cases where the Commission was ordered to issue Certificates of Return to other candidates and the reasons for the decisions by the Courts as part of the lessons learned from the 2023 General Election for the consequential reforms to improve the conduct of future elections.

“The Commission is looking at the first week of February 2024 i.e. in just a little over one month to conduct both the re-run and bye-elections.”