Political parties must meet two requirements before changing their presidential candidates’ running mates or appointees, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Festus Okoye, the INEC’s Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, said this on Friday’s episode of Politics Today on Channels Television.
He said, “A political party cannot substitute a nominated candidate, except in two instances: if the nominated candidate dies. Or if the nominated candidate withdraws from the race.
“Any withdrawal must be accompanied by a letter written by the nominated candidate to the political party, indicating he has withdrawn from the race, along with a sworn affidavit sworn.
“The party will now forward the same to INEC. And these are the documents of withdrawal, which will state who the replacements are.
“The issue of withdrawal is at the discretion of the nominated candidate and no one else.”
This comes after the Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi and the ruling party, the All Progressive Congress’ presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu both selected a “placeholder” VP candidate to beat the INEC’s deadline.
