Anambra 2025 Guber Poll: Submit Schedule of Activities by Weekend, INEC Boss Urges Political Parties
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has encouraged the various political parties to submit their schedule of activities ahead of Anambra Governorship Election slated for November 8, 2025.
The Chairman of the electoral body, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu who made the remark during the first regular consultative meeting with political parties held at the INEC Conference Room, Abuja on Wednesday also outlined the Commission’s achievements and challenges in 2024.
“You may recall that last year began and ended with a number of elections. Overall, the Commission conducted 51 re-run elections, bye-elections and off-cycle elections in 2024. In February, the Commission conducted re-run elections in 39 constituencies combined with nine bye-elections arising from vacancies in the national and State Assemblies nationwide. We also conducted two Governorship elections, the last one held in November 2024 in Ondo State.
“Furthermore, we had several electoral activities, including the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) ahead of the Edo and Ondo State Governorship elections, the publication of our 2023 General Election Report and the release of the Review Report containing 142 recommendations arising from our in-house and external engagements with stakeholders. Similarly, we sustained our engagements with stakeholders. During the year, we had a total of 16 regular quarterly consultative meetings with political parties, civil society organisations, the media and security agencies in addition to extraordinary meetings as the need arose.
“Sadly, in 2024 our State office in Benin City was flooded but we were able to recover ahead of the election. Elsewhere, two of our Local Government offices were attacked in incidents unrelated to elections or electoral activities. In Sankara, the headquarters of Ukum Local Government Area of Benue State, our office, along with other public buildings and private institutions in the area, was attacked during a local protest against insecurity. In Owa Oyibu, the headquarters of Ika North East Local Government Area of Delta State, our office was destroyed in a fire incident. The Commission is glad that our staff were safe in the two locations. However, many electoral assets were lost and the buildings substantially damaged,” Mr. Yakubu stated.
He acknowledged that year 2025 is going to be busier than 2024 in terms of elections and electoral activities.
The Chairman recalled that INEC released the timetable and schedule of activities for the Anambra State Governorship Election at its fourth regular consultative meeting held on Thursday, October 17 last year.
“Already, the Notice of Election has been published over two months ago as provided in the Timetable. The next activity is the conduct of primaries by political parties. May I remind leaders of political parties that primaries for the nomination of candidates for the Anambra State Governorship election begins in the next two months i.e. 20th March to 10th April 2025.
“You may similarly recall that at our last regular meeting, we agreed that you will forward your schedule of activities for the election to the Commission to enable us work together and plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of your party primaries and campaign activities in order to avoid the last minute rush with the attendant inability to meet deadlines and unnecessarily dissipate our energy and lean resources. So far, only a few parties are in compliance. I urge those that have not done so to submit the details by the end of this week.
“Even as we prepare for the Anambra State Governorship election, we are always mindful of our responsibilities for other elections and electoral activities. For instance,Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 requires the Commission to issue the notice for elections not later than 360 days before the date of the election. This applies to the General as well as off-cycle elections. As you are aware, the Commission is responsible for the Area Council election in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the only part of the country where INEC conducts local government election.
“The last Area Council election in the FCT was held on 12 February 2022. By the effluxion of time, the tenure of the current Chairmen and Councillors ends next year. Consequently, the Commission has approved that the 2026 Area Council election in FCT will hold on Saturday 21st February 2026. Voting will take place in all the designated Polling Units across the 68 constituencies to elect the six Area Council Chairmen and 62 Councilors,” he remarked.
The INEC boss mentioned that in compliance with the mandatory legal requirements, the notice for the election will be published next month on February 26, 2025.
Yakubu said that party primaries will be held from June 9 to 30, 2025 and the candidate nomination portal will open from 9.00am on July 21, 2025 to 6.00pm on August 11, 2025.
He further stated: “The final list of candidates will be published on 22nd September 2025. Campaign in public by political parties will commence on 24th September 2025 and end at midnight of Thursday 19th February 2026.
“The detailed Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the election as well as the list of constituencies and type of elections in the FCT will be uploaded to our website before the end of this meeting.
“Hardcopies of the two documents have been included in your folders for this meeting. For your guidance, we are also including the hardcopies of the Regulation and Guidelines for Political Parties 2022 in your folders while the soft copy is already available from our website inecnigeria.org.”
