The Chairman, Osun State Independent Electoral Commission (OSIEC), Barrister Hashim Abioye, has disclosed that some political parties contesting in the forthcoming local government election ran foul of the provisions and procedure regarding the substitution of candidates.
He said after the verification committee set up by the commission completed its assignment, it was discovered that somd parties had replaced the names of candidates with ones that are strange to the commission.
According to him, some of the affected political parties include the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) and the Action Peoples Party (APP).
Speaking at a press conference held in on Wednesday, Abioye stressed that the affected political parties committed an incurable infraction by giving nomination form to candidates whose names are different from those with the commission.
He further revealed that virtually all the political parties contesting the elections had one case or another of the infractions, and that while some are remediable others are incurable.
According to the OSIEC boss, “The provision is not an innovation, it is as also contained in the Electoral Act, 2022, that is the provision we have now adopted. For this reason, some political parties, notably the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), the Action Peoples Party (APP) ran foul of the provisions and procedure regarding substitution of candidates.
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“While no substitution can be validly done without following the rules, any substitution or change of candidate done after the purported candidate intended to be a replacement for another must have been given and submitted nomination form despite his/her name not being on the list originally submitted to the Commission would be void.
“Let me note once again that virtually all the political parties contesting the elections had one case or another of the infractions which are remediable, but the political parties highlighted above committed the most of the infractions that are incurable by giving nomination form for candidates whose names were not on the list in some local government areas and wards. This we cannot help.”
Giving an instance of the infractions, Abioye stated, “Being a major political party, I will take that of the APC as an example. In Atakunmosa West Local Government, the Chairmanship and Vice-chairmanship candidates submitted by the party to the Commission were not the persons who filled nomination forms submitted to OSIEC.
“In the same vein, the respective vice-chairmanship candidates submitted by the APC for Ede South, Egbedore, Ife Central, Ifedayo, Isokan, Olorunda and Oriade Local Government Areas were completely different from the persons that filled and submitted nomination forms to the Commission. Candidates of the APC in several Wards across various local government areas were affected by this incurable anomaly.”