12 political parties cleared for Lagos council polls

The Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) says it has cleared 12 political parties out of the 23 registered for the elections.

The council polls will hold on Saturday, July 22.

Dapo Olatunde, LASIEC’s director of publicity, said in a statement that the cleared parties had met the commission’s requirements for the polls and also presented candidates for validation.

Olatunde listed the parties as the All Progressives Congress (APC), Action Alliance (AA), Alliance for Democracy (AD), Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and Accord Party.

Others are Kowa Party, National Action Council (NAC), People’s Democratic Movements (PDM), United Democratic Party (UDP)
and United Progressive Party (UPP).

He said the names of the validated candidates had been displayed at the commission’s headquarters for observation by party
members and members of the public.

Meanwhile, the commission has begun a three-day ‘Train-the-Trainer’ course for its electoral officers across the 20 local government areas and 37 local council development areas.

According to Olatunde, the training, facilitated by the international foundation for electoral system (IFES), was to equip
ad-hoc staff engaged for the July 22 elections.

IFES is a United States-based organisation committed to the deepening of democracy and international best standards in election management.

The organisation operates in more than 100 countries and is supported by USAID.