Imo By-Election: INEC Explains Why It Declared APC Winner Without A Candidate

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has explained why it declared the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the December 5 by-election (Imo North District Senatorial) despite the court controversies surrounding the party's candidacy.

Stating the reason why the commission declared APC as the winner of the By-election during a recent interview with Arise Tv, Festus Okoye, INEC National Commissioner and chairman of Information and voters education explained that the courts that ruled on the candidacy battle of APC did not direct that the name and logo of the party be taken off the ballot papers.

READ ALSO: Imo By-Election: PDP Candidate Asks INEC to Declare Him Winner Despite APC's Victory

According to Okoye, the electorates votes for political parties and not candidates which is why the ballot papers do not carry the name of the candidate's name.

"In analysing the challenge in the Imo North District Senatorial By-Election, it is important to put the issue in context.

"Now after the APC party primaries the party submitted the Name of Francis Chukwuma Ibezim to INEC as the candidate of the political party and the commission duly in accordance with the electoral act, section 31 of the electoral act, published the name of Ibezim as the candidate of the APC, thereafter one lady Uchenna Uba went to the Federal High court Owerri and got an order to the effect that Ibezim was not the candidate of APC and the court made an order that the person who won the party primaries in that particular primaries was senator Ifeanyi Ararume, and we were ordered to replace the name of Ibezim with that of Ararume, and INEC duly complied with that order.

"Now based on this we went into that particular election, we mobilized both sensitive and non-sensitive materials and moved to the field in fact on Thursday 3^rd of December all our materials left the CBN to the various local government and to the various registration area.

"On the eve of the election, the commission was served with a court order form the court of appeal sitting in Owerri to the effect that the Federal high court that placed the order that Ararume should be placed on the list of candidates did not have requisite jurisdiction to entertain the matter and the case was accordingly struck out which reverted the commission to the status quo which made the commission return the name of Ibeziem.

"On the eve of the election, the commission was also served with another court order from the Federal High court in Abuja in a suit  That was instituted by one Tony Elebeke to the effect that the said Ibezim was not eligible to be nominated and was not qualified to contest the election.

"And so after having been served with that particular order, we now removed the name of Ibezim as the candidate of the party.

"But in making that order there was no particular order by the court of appeal in Owerri or the Federal high court in  Abuja that we should remove the name and the logo of the APC as a political party and that was why we left the name and the logo of the APC on the ballot.

"You will realize that when you go to the polling unit on the election day, the ballot paper that the voter receive does not have the name of the candidate, what you have will be the logo and the mane of the political party.

"So in accordance with section 221 of the constitution voters go to vote for political parties during elections and not necessarily candidates, because the contest is between political parties because it is the political parties that canvass for votes for candidates in the election.

"So the primary vehicles is the political parties so if we didn’t have any specific order to that effect, we decided that it was in the best interest of the electoral process to leave the political party on the ballot because one of the candidates have quickly went to the supreme court, to file a motion and also file an appeal for a stay of execution. So at the end of the day, since political parties are the ones that contest elections, the collation and the returning officer decided to declare APC as the winner of the election without making a return because it is at the point of making a return you will unveil the list submitted by the political parties where you see the candidates.

"But until the return is made you will not see the name of any candidate, you will see only the logo and the name of political parties and that was exactly why we did what we did," Okoye said.

It will be recalled that INEC on Sunday declared APC as the winner of the Imo state by-election despite not having a candidate at the by-election.

Following the development, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) asked INEC to declare it the winner of the December 5 by-election.