However, the commission said that the names of the presidential candidates must be accompanied by the names of their running mates or they will be considered invalid.
This means that all presidential candidates must elect their deputies on or before June 17.
INEC President Prof. Mahmood Yakubu affirmed this during a meeting with the State Resident Electoral Commissioners in Abuja on Thursday in Abuja.
According to him, all political parties were obliged to present their lists of candidates for the national elections, that is, presidential, senatorial and deputy, before 6:00 p.m. on the deadline day.
He also said that the lists of candidates for the state elections, that is, governor/lieutenant governor and houses of the state assembly, must be submitted before 6 pm on Friday, July 15.
He stressed that the names of the candidates for governor must also be accompanied by the names of their running mates.
Yakubu maintained that the INEC would only accept the names of the candidates that emerged from the primaries held by the political parties as provided by Section 84 of the Electoral LAW 2022.
The INEC chief noted that a nominations center has been set up at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja to receive and process all political party nominations, including dedicated phone lines to serve as a help desk for assistance.
He said all parties must upload the details of their candidates for each constituency on the commission’s Nomination Portal.
Yakubu said that with this initiative, the commission has eliminated the usual physical interface between party officials and INEC staff in order to present the list of candidates for the 2023 general elections.
“All political parties must upload the details of their candidates for each electoral district in the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal (ICNP). To achieve this goal, four officials recommended by each of the 18 political parties were trained on the procedure for uploading nomination forms to the dedicated web portal. Confidential Access Keys to the portal have already been delivered to each political party to facilitate the uploading of their applications”, he said.