2019: INEC unveils Buhari, Atiku, 77 others presidential candidates
…1,803 to vie for 109 Senate seats, 4548 for 360 Reps seats
President Muhammad Buhari of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and candidates of 77 other political parties will contest in the 2019 presidential election.
This was disclosed by the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, during a press briefing at the Commission’s secretariat in Abuja on Friday.
Yakubu added that 1,803 candidates across the parties will be vying for 109 senatorial seats while 4,548 candidates for the 360 House of Representatives seats.
According to him, personal information on these candidates as contained in the CF 001 filed by each candidate have been published and pasted in all the 1,558 constituencies across the country.
The INEC boss urged party members and the electorate to check the lists and are free to challenge any false information.
Urging members of the public that discovered falsehood in information provided by the candidates to take legal action, he said “any person with reasonable ground to believe that any information on Form CF001 submitted by a candidate contains incorrect or false claims is at liberty to file an action against such candidate at the Federal High Court or the High Court of a State or the Federal Capital Territory”.
The chairman said personal particulars of those contesting in Governorship and State Assembly elections will be published on 9th November 2018, one week after the close of submission of nominations by political parties.
Fielding questions from journalists, the INEC boss said the Commission did not receive list of candidates for the National Assembly seats from the Zamfara State APC.
Yakubu, however, refused to comment further on the grounds that there are litigations on the Zamfara APC primaries.
He said, “the Commission has not received any candidate list from APC in Zamfara”” and insisted that “there are three suits in court on Zamfara. So, INEC will not comment until the suits are vacated”.
The chairman said the Commission has implemented three out of the 14 activities listed in January this year towards next year election.
He said the Commission will conduct three bye-elections before the 2019 polls. According to him, election will be conducted in the Toro Federal Constituency of Bauchi State, Kankia/ Kusada/ Ingawa Federal Constituency of Katsina State and Ikom II State Constituency of Cross River State House of Assembly latest by Saturday, November 17, 2018.
