Ondo election: IPAC condemns ‘unjust exclusion’ of candidates by INEC

The Ondo State Chapter of the Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), has condemned what it described as the unjust exclusion and arbitrary inclusion of political party candidates as flagbearers for the respective political parties ahead of the Ondo State governorship election holding this month.

IPAC, the umbrella body of all registered political Parties in Nigeria, in a communique issued at the end of its meeting in Akure, on Tuesday, said the substitution of candidate’s name “is a matter that must remain exclusively within the domain of the machinery of the political parties because an injury to one is an injury to all and it serves to undermine the whole electoral process.”

The council also frowned at the practice of imposing candidates against the guildlines of political parties and the electoral laws by the national officers.

IPAC called on the International Republican Institute (IRI) and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to attend to issues of Political parties and elections more seriously to bring about the needed synergy.

While charging all political parties in the state to center their electioneering campaigns around issues that affect the interest and welfare of the citizenry, IPAC urged political parties against mobilizing party agents and third parties for act of thuggery and anti-social behaviors that could threaten the peace in the state.