By Mumini AbdulKareem
As contest into various elective positions for the 2019 general elections draws nearer in Kwara State, no fewer than 344 candidates under various political parties will be vying for various seats, National Pilot, can report.
The names of the candidates were published by the Kwara State head office of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), last week.
The list which was sighted by this reporter showed that the over 300 candidates will jostle for the House of Assembly seats in the state while 32 others will square up for the governorship race.
The seats for the House of Representatives and Senate involved over 100 contestants.
Although the parties have submitted the final names of candidates to INEC, there is still room for replacement of any of them in whatever position being contested for.
For the Presidential and National Assembly, November 18, 2018 is the final day of substitution while December 1 is for the final replacement of the Governorship and state House of Assembly candidates.
Out of the over 90 political parties registered by INEC in the country for the forthcoming poll, about 50 of them are active in Kwara.
According to the timetable released by INEC for the exercise, the Presidential and National Assembly election will precede the Governorship and state Houses of Assembly on February 15th, 2019 and March 2nd, 2019 respectively.
The last day for political campaign according to the timetable is February 14 and February 28 for Presidential/National and Governorship/House of Assembly respectively.
While speaking with the National Pilot on the list, the head of voters’ education and publicity department, Barr. Jacob Ayanda, said the state INEC takes directive from the headquarters on what to publish in line with their mandate as stipulated in the commission’s guideline for the poll.
He added that the political parties deal with INEC’s head office and it is what is sent to them that is published.
He called on those who are yet to obtain their Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs) to seize the opportunity of the decentralization of the cards distribution to wards.
He however lamented the low turnout of registered voters for the ongoing PVCs collection.
Recall that Ayanda had said the commission has “already displayed the register and people have turned out en mass.
He however added that, “But those that have so far come out for the collection of PVCs are still very few in the places we visited and we still need to let people know that this is a golden opportunity for them. They have been complaining that the collection points were too far from them and now we have moved it nearer to the wards and we pasted it at the polling units. So whoever has problem after checking at the polling unit will now go to the ward headquarters, all these centres are very close to them”.
