{"id":1827,"date":"2020-08-18T06:13:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T05:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/?p=1827"},"modified":"2020-08-18T06:13:32","modified_gmt":"2020-08-18T05:13:32","slug":"advanced-nigeria-democratic-party-in-bayelsa-guber-election-did-not-present-a-validly-nominated-candidate-inec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/18\/advanced-nigeria-democratic-party-in-bayelsa-guber-election-did-not-present-a-validly-nominated-candidate-inec\/","title":{"rendered":"Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party in Bayelsa Guber election did not present a validly nominated candidate…INEC"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC said on\u00a0 Monday\u00a0 that the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party\u00a0 in the\u00a0 November 16, 2019 Governorship election in Bayelsa State did not present a validly nominated candidate.\u00a0 The electoral umpire said in a statement in Abuja that the nomination of its Deputy Governorship candidate Peter Esinkuma David was flawed because it fell short of the mandatory age limit of \u00a035 years as stipulated in section 177(b) of the constitution. The electoral body\u00a0 was reacting to a ruling by the Bayelsa Elections Petition Tribunal, Abuja\u00a0which declared the election of Governor Douye Diri as illegal and consequently ordered for fresh elections. In the statement, INEC said it observed that the Deputy Governorship\u00a0 candidate was born on the 10th day of February, 1985.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Governor Douye Diri<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Commission further explained that on 13th September 2019, it wrote to ANDP drawing the party’s attention to the invalidity of the said nomination following which it subsequently forwarded the name of one Miss Inowei Janeth as replacement. The electoral umpire said on the 27th of September 2019,it informed the party that it\u00a0 failed to meet the September 9, deadline for submission and substitution of candidates as provided for in the Timeline and Schedule of Activities released by the Commission on the 16th of May, 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The electoral body also explained that following this obvious discrepancy, the name and logo of the party did not appear and was not reflected in the ballot paper. “Furthermore the issue of nomination and substitution of candidates raised in the petition fall within the ambit of pre-election issues covered by the 4th alteration to the constitution that must be filed within 14 days of the occurrence of the event” , INEC revealed.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By section 143(1) of the Electoral Act, if the Tribunal determines that a candidate returned as elected was not validly elected, then if notice of appeal is filed within 21 days from the date of the decision, the candidate returned as elected shall\u00a0\u00a0 notwithstanding\u00a0\u00a0 the contrary\u00a0\u00a0 decision\u00a0\u00a0 remain\u00a0\u00a0 in office pending the determination of the appeal. The Commission is not obligated to give effect to the said judgement\u00a0 of\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 Tribunal\u00a0\u00a0 till\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0 parties\u00a0\u00a0 exhaust\u00a0 their right of appeal as provided in the law, INEC further explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Moreover, there are germane constitutional issues raised by the judgement and the Commission will take a position when it receives the certified true copy of the judgement. This is because the issues raised in the petition revolve around   the   invalidity   of   the   nomination   of   the   Deputy Governorship candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Furthermore, the issue of nomination and substitution of candidates raised in the petition fall within the ambit of pre-election   issues  covered   by   the   4th  alteration  to   the Constitution   that   must   be   filed   within   14   days   of   the occurrence of the event. From the records in the Commission, the Advanced Nigeria Democratic  Party  (ANDP)  was  one   of   the   Political  Parties   that signified its intention to contest the Bayelsa Governorship Election that took place on the 16th day of November 2019. From our records, the party conducted party primaries and at the end of the exercise it submitted the name of one Peter Esinkuma David as its Deputy Governorship candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the affidavit evidencing age and the affidavit sworn to by the candidate, the age\u00a0of the candidate at the time of the submission of their nomination was 34 years contrary to section 177(b)\u00a0of\u00a0the Constitution that makes it mandatory that only those who are 35 and above can contest the election.\u00a0 In the candidates\u2019 statutory declaration of age and affidavit attached to his form, the Party stated that the candidate was born on the 10th\u00a0 day of February 1985, and was 34 years on the day his name was submitted by his party. On the 13th day of September, 2019, the Commission wrote to the Party drawing \u00a0their attention to the constitutional age requirement of 35 years for\u00a0 Governorship\/Deputy\u00a0Governorship candidates as stipulated in section 177(b) of the Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission\u00a0 also informed\u00a0\u00a0them\u00a0\u00a0of\u00a0 the\u00a0invalidity\u00a0of\u00a0 their nomination for the 16th November 2019 Governorship election in Bayelsa State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“On the 21st day of September 2019 and in response to the letter of the Commission dated the 13th September 2019, the Advanced Nigeria Democratic\u00a0 Party wrote to the Commission acknowledging the invalidity of their nomination and forwarding the name of one Miss\u00a0INOWEI JANETH\u00a0\u00a0 as\u00a0 their\u00a0\u00a0new Deputy Governorship candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

” On the 27th of September 2019, the\u00a0Commission informed\u00a0the Party\u00a0\u00a0 that\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 deadline\u00a0\u00a0 for\u00a0\u00a0 the\u00a0\u00a0 submission\u00a0\u00a0 of\u00a0\u00a0 nominations\u00a0\u00a0 as provided for in the Timetable and Schedule of Activities released by the Commission on 16th\u00a0 May 2019 was 9th\u00a0 September 2019. The Commission also informed the Party that since they did not submit valid nomination,\u00a0they\u00a0couldn\u2019t\u00a0\u00a0 validly\u00a0substitute any candidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consequently, the name and logo of the Party did not appear and was not reflected in the ballot paper. The Bayelsa State Election Tribunal led by Justice Ibrahim Sirajo had on Monday in\u00a0Abuja nullified the election of Governor Douye Diri as Governor of Bayelsa State on November 16, 2019.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But in a statement on Monday, Mr. Daniel Alabrah, Chief Press Secretary to the Bayelsa State Governor said\u00a0 Governor Douye Diri\u00a0 would appeal the ruling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC said on  Monday  that the Advanced Nigeria Democratic Party  in the  November 16, 2019 Governorship election in Bayelsa State did not present a validly nominated candidate.  The electoral umpire said in a statement in Abuja that the nomination of its Deputy Governorship candidate Peter Esinkuma David was flawed because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1828,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[454,358,453,106],"class_list":["post-1827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-politics","tag-andp","tag-bayelsa","tag-gov-douye-diri","tag-inec"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1837,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827\/revisions\/1837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shippingworld-ng.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}