Accept LP candidates in 24 states, court orders INEC

Ahead of the upcoming election, a federal high court in Abuja has ordered the Independent National Election Commission to accept the nomination of Labor Party candidates in 24 states either manually or through its electronic nomination portal.

Judge Inyang Ekwo ruled in the lawsuits brought to him by the party, ruling that INEC had breached sections 31, 33 and 36 of the 2022 Electoral Act by rejecting the Labor Party candidates.

The party had run replacement nominations in November 2022 for its candidates who pulled out of the 2023 general election in some states.

The party has communicated the withdrawals to INEC through its National Chairman and National Secretary.

The party also announced the October 27 date to hold primaries for replacement nominations.

However, instead of uploading the names of the new candidates, INEC claimed that its nomination portal was faulty and refused to accept the candidate list manually.

The 24 affected states are: Kwara, Plateau, Nasarawa, Lagos, Bayelsa, Oyo, Benue, Bauchi, Akwa Ibom and Ekiti.

Others include Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Rivers, Sokoto, Ebonyi, Gombe, Borno, Osun, Adamawa, and Cross River.

The court ruled that the evidence of the Labor Party exchanging letters with INEC was credible and subsequently attached probative value to it and that the Labor Party should not bear the effect of a non-functional electronic nomination portal.

In line with the LP that the nomination and submission of the list of candidates cannot be rejected by INEC until 90 days before the general election, the judge stated that the Labor Party was seeking to submit a list of its candidates in the 24 states, more than 90 days. until the 2023 general election, and was thus within the time allowed by law.

Judge Ekwo ordered INEC to open its website to allow the Labor Party to submit a list of candidates or accept the list manually.