The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ruled out the use of a “placeholder” or fake vice presidential candidate by political parties on Monday, saying it violates Nigeria’s constitution.
INEC had set June 17 as the deadline for the nomination of vice-presidential candidates once the presidential primaries were completed.
Some candidates, including Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress and Peter Obi of the Labour Party, submitted names of vice-presidential candidates whom they described as “placeholders or dummies” as some political parties continued to search for the rightful VP candidate and to beat the deadline set by INEC for submission of names.
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However, INEC Commissioner for Voters’ Education and Information, Barrister Festus Okoye, said the notion of “placeholder” for vice-presidential candidates has no place in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s constitution, during a conversation on ARISE TV on Monday (INEC).
“Placeholder is a uniquely Nigerian creation,” he added, adding that the commission’s statute makes no provision for it.
According to him, the constitution clearly states that a presidential candidate cannot run alone and must select an associate to run beside him for the job, and presidential candidates have submitted their associates to run alongside them in the presidential election, according to INEC.
“As far as we are concerned, there’s no form submitted by the presidential candidate where they said ‘we’re submitting this person’s name as a place or placeholder,” he said
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According to him, political parties’ candidates have submitted names of associates to run with them, and that is the position of the law as at today and nothing has changed, adding that for there to be, a substitution of a candidate, the vice-presidential candidate must write to INEC, with a sworn affidavit stating that he is withdrawing from the race within the time frame provided by the law. That’s the only way there can be a substitution of candidates.
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