By Jude Opara, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed the next governorship election in Anambra state to take place on 18th November, 2025.
National Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu revealed this on Thursday in Abuja while flagging off the Fourth Quarterly Consultative Meeting with leaders of political parties.
Yakubu said the election will be coming just one year after the November 16 governorship election in Ondo state; justifying his strongly held position that there are no more specified election periods in the country.
“In compliance with the mandatory requirement of 360 days, the formal notice for the election will be published on 13th November 2024.
“Party primaries will be held from 20th March 2025 to 10th April 2025. The candidate nomination portal will open at 9.00am on 18th April 2025 and close at 6.00pm on 12th May 2025. The final list of candidates will be published on 9th June 2025.
“Campaigns in public by political parties will commence on 11th June 2025 and end at midnight of Thursday 6th November 2025. Voting will take place in all the 5,720 Polling Units across the State on Saturday 8th November 2025. In the coming weeks, the Commission will provide details of other electoral activities, including the registration of new voters, transfer of voters and the replacement of lost or damaged PVCs”.
The INEC Chairman added that the detailed timetable and schedule of activities for the election will be uploaded to Commission’s website and social media platforms.
Yakubu also urged the political parties to use the INEC timetable to come up with your own timetable and schedule of activities to enable them work together and plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of their party primaries and campaign activities.
He equally spoke on the forthcoming November 16 governorship election in Ondo state where only two days ago, the Commission presented the register of voters to political parties in the state office in Akure.
“With this development, we have successfully accomplished 10 out of the 13 activities listed in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election. The remaining activities are the publication of the Notice of Poll, the Last Day of Campaign and Election Day.
“We are working in earnest to ensure that we deliver the identification tags for each of the 24,148 agents uploaded to our portal.
“The Commission is also glad to report that the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) from the last Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) commenced today in Ondo State. For the next five days (17th – 21st October 2024), the cards will be available for collection at each of the 203 wards across the State. Thereafter, the cards will be available for collection in our 18 Local Government Area offices in the State for one week (23rd – 29th October 2024). As earlier announced, the centres will be open to citizens from 9am – 5pm daily”.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yusuf Mamman Dantalle said democracy is being threatened because people are beginning to show apathy to actions sue to the rising cost of living.
He therefore called on the federal government to work towards easing the pains being felt by the people so as to rekindle the interest of the people in elections.
“Citizens’ participation in elections is critical for sustainable democracy as power resides in the people. The need to create an environment conducive for successful elections, political stability, economic growth and public safety cannot be overemphasized”.
He also charged INEC to use the Ondo state governorship election to improve on the electoral process.
