The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has advised political parties to adhere to the deadline for submission of candidate nominations for the 2023 general elections.

Yakubu gave the advice on Friday when he visited the venue of the training organised by the commission for political party officials.

The training was on how to use the new INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP) for the 2023 general elections.

Yakubu, according to the statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr Rotimi Oyekanmi, visited all the six groups under the training to ascertain that the party officials understand what they were being taught.

The INEC chairman urged the officials to carefully note the respective commencement dates and deadlines for the submission/uploading of the candidates’ nomination forms for the national and state elections to the portal.

Yakubu reminded the party officials of all information contained in the timetable and schedule of activities for the coming general elections.

He said that the online submission of nomination forms EC9A, 9B, 9C, 9D, and 9E for national elections – presidential and national assembly would start on June 10 and end on June 17.

Yakubu added that the dates for the submission of nomination forms for state elections – governorship and state assembly remained between July 1 and July 15.

He assured the party officials that INEC would render technical or any other support they might require while using the portal.

The training began on Wednesday, June 1 and would end on Saturday, June 4.

INEC National Commissioner, Mrs May Agbamuche-Mbu, while declaring open the four-day training workshop in Abuja on Wednesday, said that ICNP had been in use since the 2020 Edo and Ondo State governorship elections.

Agbamuche-Mbu said that the portal was recently redesigned to accommodate the greater demands of a wider and general election nomination process.

She said that the new provisions in the Electoral Act (2022), which makes provision for several technological innovations, had given INEC the discretion to apply technology where necessary. (Guardian)

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