The Osun State Independent Electoral Commission, OSSIEC, is expressing worries about the inappropriate selection of candidates by three political parties.
The OSSIEC chairman, Hashim Abioye, disclosed that the political parties impacted were the All Progressives Congress (APC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and Action Peoples Party (APP).
OSSIEC has set the date for the local government elections in the state for February 22, 2025.
The OSSIEC chairman, Hashim Abioye, during the presentation of the commission’s verification committee report to journalists in Osogbo on Wednesday, mentioned that almost all of the 18 political parties that put forward candidates made errors of some kind.
He stated that these political parties failed to correctly nominate candidates for the chairmanship roles in seven local government areas.
Discrepancies were identified between the candidates’ names submitted by these parties and the names on their official nomination forms.
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“In the course of the verification exercise, a checklist was designed to gauge and verify the eligibility of each candidate’s age qualification, academic qualification, tax compliance, nomination fee compliance, and most importantly, sponsorship by the political party of the candidate as contained in the list of candidates submitted to the commission by the political party, were the yardstick.
“Some political parties, notably the All Progressives Congress, the Allied Peoples Movement, and the Action Peoples Party ran foul of the provisions and procedure regarding substitution of candidates.
“While no substitution can be validly done without following the rules, any substitution or change of candidate done after the purported candidate intended to be a replacement for another must have been given and submitted nomination form despite his/her name not being on the list originally submitted to the commission would be void,” he said.
The spokesperson for the Osun APC, Kola Olabisi, replied by stating that the party had not received the report yet.
He guaranteed that the APC would assess the commission’s discoveries before deciding on the next steps.
Olabisi added, “We are a party that acts based on the rule of law. We will study the report to be sure what he said is devoid of victimisation.”
