INEC Urges Political Parties To Field Fresh Candidates For 23 Vacant Legislative Seats

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) asked political parties to begin selecting new candidates for upcoming bye-elections for state and federal legislative positions.

Chairman of INEC Mahmood Yakubu pointed out that in the past year and a half, since the start of the current national and state assemblies in June 2023, there have been vacancies in 23 constituencies where members have left, Premium Times reported.

He mentioned during the first quarterly meeting of the year with political parties that the commission held nine bye-elections early last year, and since then, 14 more vacancies have arisen.

He explained that bye-elections are unpredictable, difficult to budget for, and hard to plan. He also noted that some bye-elections can lead to more bye-elections.

Yakubu mentioned that there were cases where a bye-election in one senatorial district resulted in a member of the House of Representatives winning, which created another vacancy.

This, in turn, led to a member of the State Assembly winning a bye-election to the House of Representatives, causing yet another vacancy in the State Assembly. As a result, one bye-election led to three. He also stated that bye-elections take the Commission's focus away from its other important electoral duties.

Yakubu explained that for the past nine years, INEC has been advocating for a more cost-effective way to fill vacancies, similar to what is done in many other countries. He added that the commission has been urging stakeholders, including political parties, to support the idea of asking the National Assembly to amend the law to allow for this change.

He mentioned that just three weeks ago, the commission raised this issue again while defending its 2025 budget before the joint committee of the Senate and House of Representatives at the National Assembly.

Yakubu appealed to political party leaders to nominate new candidates for the bye-elections instead of selecting current members, to avoid having to hold multiple bye-elections.

He thanked political party leaders, noting that before the first set of elections in February the previous year, there were vacancies in both the Senate and the House of Representatives. He expressed satisfaction that all political parties had responded positively to this issue.

The chairman of INEC expressed hope that this cooperative approach would continue, so that the commission would only need to hold one bye-election for each constituency, instead of three.