INEC to announce date for supplementary polls after March 18

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it has not fixed a date for the conduct of supplementary elections in some parts of the country.

After the February 25 elections, the commission had said it would conduct supplementary polls for some national assembly elections after the governorship election which was to hold on March 11.

However, the polls were postponed till March 18.

In a statement on Friday, Festus Okoye, INEC’s national commissioner, and chairman, information and voter education committee, said it was not true that the commission had decided to conduct supplementary elections together with the governorship and state 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,” the statement reads.

“However, this should not be confused with the two National Assembly elections earlier suspended by the Commission and rescheduled to hold along with the Governorship and State Assembly elections.

“First is the Enugu East Senatorial District election which was countermanded to allow the Labour Party 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. These are not supplementary but main elections that could not be held earlier.

“The public is advised to disregard any report alluding to the conduct of supplementary elections alongside the Governorship and State Aseembly elections tomorrow Saturday 18th March 2023.”