INEC MAY EXTEND THE PRIMARIES' DEADLINE BY ONE WEEK

Indications have emerged that the Independent National Electoral Commission may bow to pressure from political parties seeking the extension of the June 3 deadline for the conduct of primary elections.

The commission, which had insisted that it would not tamper with the timetable for the 2023 elections, may finally succumb to the demand of the political parties by extending the deadline by one week.

At a meeting with the commission on Friday in Abuja, the leadership of the 18 registered political parties under the aegis of the Inter-party Advisory Council restructured their demand and appealed to INEC to shift the deadline by one week

IPAC had earlier sought a two-month extension, a demand which was vehemently rejected by the commission.

The National Chairman of IPAC, Yabagi Sani, at the parley in Abuja, urged INEC to take a second look at the timetable, which he said the commission considered tight in respect of the fact the new Electoral Act 2022 is being put to use for the first time.

"And the fact is that anything one is doing for the first time, you may make some mistakes. And we feel that if we're given more time, we'll be able to deliver on the promise of having free and fair elections as we conduct our primaries.

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*This meeting is coming on the heels of the meeting which the leaders of political parties had, where we unanimously considered it very important to seek another round of thoughts of your commission in view of the timetable.

"We are very grateful to you because of the innovations that you have brought to the electoral process and we want to be a partner in progress, that is why we are asking you to consider giving a little adjustment in the timetable to enable us to carry out this important assignment," Sani said.

Also, the national chairman, of Zenith Labour Party, Chief Dan Nwanyanwu, while reiterating the stance of the IPAC chairman, said the "window" would enable them to carry out the task ahead of them perfectly.