By CHARLES IWUOHA

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released the final list of Candidates for Ondo governorship election.

Apart from the initial primaries, the commission had earlier published the personal particulars of the Governorship candidates and their running mates in the State and Local Government offices.

INEC said in in a statement on Thursday that, in line with the provision of Section 33 of the Electoral Act 2022, two political parties conducted fresh primaries to replace their earlier nominated candidates and their running mates by the deadline of June 10, 2024.

The parties are the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) while five parties replaced their running mates only.

They are the African Action Congress (AAC), the Action Democratic Party (ADP), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).

In the statement, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, noted that 17 political parties are fielding candidates for the election.

According to the statement, no political party has nominated a female candidate while one candidate nominated by the African Democratic Congress (ADC) is a person with disability (a paraplegic).

INEC said: “The final list also gives the breakdown of the candidates by age and academic qualifications. The list has been published at our office in Akure and also uploaded to our website and social media platforms for public information.

“COMMENCEMENT OF CAMPAIGN BY POLITICAL PARTIES IN PUBLIC

On commencement of campaigns by Political Parties, the commission explained that with the publication of the final list of candidates, the next activity is electioneering campaign.

“As provided by Section 94(1) of the Electoral Act 2022, campaign by Political Parties in public shall commence not earlier than 150 days before polling day and end 24 hours prior to that day.

“Therefore, Political Parties are now permitted to start campaign in public from Wednesday 19th June, 2024 and end at midnight on Thursday 14th November 2024 as indicated in items 8 and 12 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election.

“As parties commence this critical phase of the election, the Commission once again reminds candidates, agents and their supporters of the provision of the law and the Commission's guidelines governing such activity.

“For emphasis, parties shall conduct their campaigns with civility and decorum devoid of inciting language, violence, voter inducement and other infractions in accordance with the provisions of Section 92-97 of the Electoral Act 2022.

“The Ondo State Governorship Election is scheduled to hold on Saturday 16th November 2024.”