17 parties to contest Edo gov’ship election

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that 17 political parties will participate in the off-cycle Edo State governorship election scheduled for September 21.

This was disclosed by the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of INEC, Mr. Sam Olumekun, in a statement on Wednesday.

Olumekun explained that the 17 parties met the deadline for the submission of the names of their elected candidates at party primaries for the election. He also stated that INEC would publish the personal particulars of candidates for the Edo election on Saturday.

Rotimi Oyekanmi, the Chief Press Secretary to INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, explained that two of the nation’s 19 registered political parties, the Youth Party (YP) and the National Rescue Movement (NRM), would not participate in the election as they did not nominate candidates by the time the candidates’ nomination portal closed on Sunday.