From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has released an amended final list of candidates participating in the 2023 general election, revealing that court order was responsible for the replacement of the over 340 candidates.
It disclosed that candidates for Senate seats, House of Representatives, Governorship and House of Assembly were all involved in the first and second amendments.
According to the list released on its official website, the commission disclosed that while the first amendment for senate totalled to 33 candidates, the second amendment involved 19 candidates.
On the governorship, the commission revealed that two governorship candidates from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), 10 governorship candidates from four political parties, comprising APC, PRP, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Alliance for Democratic Change (ADC) were affected in the second amendment.
Although it did not reveal the clear identity of the affected candidates, it however revealed that the House of Representatives candidates were the second most affected, explaining that while 80 of them were involved in the first amendment, 73 were affected in the second amendment.
Parties, according to the list, involved in the House of Representatives candidates include, APC, PDP, All progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Labour Party (LP), NNPP, A, AA, and APP.
In the State House of Assembly, while the first amendment involves six candidates from APC and LP, the second amendment affected 125 Assembly candidates from APGA, APC, ADC, LP, PDP, SDP, and PRP.
In summation, according to the list from the commission, the number of candidates participating in the next year’s general election affected in the two amendments include, 340 of them