Political parties taking part in the 2019 general races have said they won’t comply with the mandate of the Independent National Electoral Commission that they should stop campaign after the deferment of the presidential and National Assembly races on Saturday morning.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, had on Saturday while giving explanations behind the deferment of the elections, said campaigns had finished on Thursday.
In any case, the All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Coalition of United Political Parties, on Sunday said they could never comply with the request, saying that they would proceed with their campaign.
A report by the Hausa Service of the British Broadcasting Corporation, checked in Kano, on Sunday, cited the National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole and a Director in the Atiku Campaign Organization, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso as saying the electoral laws took into account campaign to go on until 24 hours before elections.
“Nobody asked that the elections should be delayed. So, since the elections have been postponed, they (INEC) should allow everybody to campaign.
“Everybody knows that what the electoral law says is that campaigns can continue until 24 hours to the elections so, since the elections have been postponed by one week, political parties should continue with their campaigns,” Kwankwaso noted.
The BBC reported that Oshiomhole explained that the electoral law permits for campaigns until 24 hours before the commencement of polls.
He said, “INEC cannot go contrary to what the law says. Everyone knows that campaigns can only be suspended 24 hours to an election, I will continue with campaigns on Sunday (yesterday) because if we don’t campaign, people will not come out and vote.
“We will tell the people what happened have happened. Let them come out and vote for the President (Muhammadu Buhari). For one week, if we don’t talk, people will forget; we will campaign.”
In a related development on the position of the PDP had on Sunday said it took the choice to re-open its elections after due thought of the arrangement of the Electoral Act.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbondiyan, in an announcement, said the PDP rejected what he called the unjust regulatory denial of open campaigns by INEC.
He said, “Our position is predicated on the clear provision of Section 99 (1) of the Electoral Act, which stipulated that “for the purposes of this Act, the period of campaigning in public by every political party shall commence 90 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day.
“The clear import of this provision, in the current situation, is that given the postponement of the elections to February 23, the 24 hours requirement for closure of all public campaigns falls on the midnight of February 21.”
On its part, the CUPP has urged its party members to reject INEC’s orders and resume campaigns towards Saturday’s elections.
CUPP, in an announcement by its national representative, Imo Ugochinyere, additionally said Yakubu’s position was unlawful.
He contended that since the presidential race had been moved to Saturday, political parties were at freedom to continue campaign till midnight on Thursday.
Ugochinyere, consequently, solicited individuals from CUPP to continue campaigns from Sunday (yesterday) and activate voters for the presidential hopeful of the PDP, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
Be that as it may, responding to the gatherings’ resistance to the commission’s organization, INEC said it would take an official conclusion on regardless of whether political parties could continue campaigns for the races on Monday (today).
The Chief Press Secretary to the INEC Chairman, Rotimi Oyekanmi, who revealed this on Sunday, said the gathering of the commission’s administration would decide if the discretionary body would move its ground on its prior choice on campaigns or not.