The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Wednesday said the Labour Party, LP, and four other political parties would not be participating in the August 16, 2025 bye-elections in Edo State.
DAILY POST reports that the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Prof. Anugbum Onuoha disclosed this at a press briefing in Benin City.
Onuoha listed the other affected parties as Accord, BOOT Party, National Rescue Movement, NRM and Young Progressive Party, YPP.
He said while the Labour Party did not indicate interest in the elections, others who indicated interest did not conduct primaries to field candidates.
According to him, Labour Party did not notify INEC of its intention to participate in the election and as a result, its primary was not known or monitored by the INEC officials
He said out of the 14 political parties that indicated interest, only nine invited INEC to monitor their primary elections.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner listed the parties that would be participating to include Action Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Congress (APC), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Action Peoples Party (APP), Action Democratic Party (ADP), New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP).
He added that when INEC staff visited the secretariats of the other four parties for the primary elections, the facilities were under lock.
“Fourteen political parties expressed interest. They gave us their address, we went there and we didn’t see anybody. Those ones include Accord, BOOT Party, National Rescue Movement (NRM), Young Progressive Party (YPP), they closed their office.
“Some others invited us, but we got there, their doors were locked. We could not find anyone,” he said.
He also expressed concern over the unwillingness of voters to collect their Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs.
According to him, a total of 101,617 uncollected PVCs were recorded in the seven local government areas that are participating in the election.
Onuoha added that out of the 719,504 voters that registered for the election, only 617, 887 have collected their PVCs.
He assured the residents of the affected areas of free, fair and credible elections.
“The Commission is fully prepared to conduct a transparent and hitch-free elections,” he said, adding, “Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) has been configured, while non-sensitive materials have been deployed.”
The commission would be conducting bye-elections in Ovia Federal Constituency and the Edo Central senatorial district vacated by the election of the former occupants who were elected deputy governor and governor of the state, respectively.
