Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Thursday that it would conduct 28 court ordered rerun elections on January 25 next year.
The commission said Thursrday in a statement by the National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Public Information, Festus Okoye, that the rerun elections would take place in one senatorial district and 12 federal constituencies and state constituencies
The commission said that it reached the decision to conduct the rerun elections after a meeting of the Elections Management Body, stating that there are 28 court-ordered elections still outstanding which are distributed across 12 states of the federation.
INEC said that the break down of the rerun elections comprised of one senatorial district out of 109. 12 federal constituencies out of 360 and 15 state assembly constituencies out of 991.
According to Okoye, “After consideration of several issues surrounding the rerun elections, including the time needed for preparations, establishing the full details of the affected areas from court judgments as well as the intervention of the Yuletide, the commission has decided to hold all the 28 outstanding court-ordered rerun elections on Saturday 25th January 2020.
“Further details of various activities and timelines will be published later,” Okoye said.
He explained that there are, so far, 30 such court-ordered rerun and supplementary rerun elections, out of which two:, the rerun election for the Ajaokuta Federal Constituency and the supplementary rerun election for the Kogi West senatorial district were conducted on 30th November 2019 has been concluded.
The INEC national commissioner said the commission will make available further details of the affected areas, including the polling units on its website in due course.
INEC said that as a result of the 2019 elections, that a -total of 807 post-election petitions were filed at various tribunals. Out of this figure, 582 were dismissed, while 183 were withdrawn by the petitioners
He said that out of the remaining 42, the tribunals ordered reruns in 30 and issuance of certificates of return in 12 cases.
Okoye gave the commission’s reassurrance that it is doing everything within its control to ensure that elections are free, fair and credible.
He said, “We will continue to ask for the understanding, support and commitment of all stakeholders and agencies involved in elections to achieve this purpose.”
