The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has debunked reports circulating online that it plans to conduct supplementary elections for the presidential and national assembly polls concurrently with the governorship and state assembly elections slated for Saturday, March 18th.
In a statement issued on Friday, Festus Okoye, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, clarified that INEC had not issued any directive for such an exercise and would communicate the exact day for the supplementary elections after the governorship and state house of assembly polls.
“The Commission has not scheduled the conduct of supplementary elections arising from the Presidential and National Assembly elections. For clarity, the supplementary elections will take place on a date to be announced by the Commission immediately after the Governorship and State Assembly elections,” Okoye stated.
He urged the public not to confuse the supplementary elections with the two National Assembly elections suspended on February 25th and rescheduled to hold alongside the governorship and state assembly elections.
“The public is advised to disregard any report alluding to the conduct of supplementary elections alongside the Governorship and State Assembly elections tomorrow, Saturday 18th March 2023,” he added.
Okoye further explained that the two National Assembly elections earlier suspended by the Commission were not supplementary but main elections that could not hold earlier.
“The Enugu East Senatorial District election was countermanded to allow the Labour Party to conduct a fresh primary election to replace its deceased candidate in line with the provision of Section 34(1) of the Electoral Act 2022.
“The second is the Esan Central/Esan West/Igueben Federal Constituency of Edo State following issues with the ballot paper for the election,” he said.
