•Releases fresh timetable, holds gov, Assembly primaries Thursday, Senate, Reps Friday, Saturday
The All Progressives Congress (APC) appears to be walking a tight rope to beat the June 3 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for political parties to conclude primaries.
While the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commenced the conduct of its primaries across the country, the APC is yet to screen its presidential aspirants with many faithful expressing fears that the party was running out of time.
“There is crisis in the party, aspirants are worried. There is no clear direction. It appears the leadership of the party is overwhelmed and time is not on their side. We’ve not started our primaries and the party is not even ready,” a top official of the party told Daily Sun.
This is a aspirants running for various political positions are in suspense, following repeated adjustments of timetable for primaries by the leadership of the party.
Last week, APC reviewed its primary election timetable with the earlier three-day presidential convention rescheduled for two days from Sunday 29 to Monday, 30 May. It also shifted its governorship and House of Representatives primaries to Thursday, May, 26, while the Senate and House of Assembly primary is slated for Friday, May 27.
Governorship and House of Representatives election appeals would hold on Friday, May 27, while those of the Senate and House of Assembly would hold on Saturday, May 28.
Shortly before press time last night, the National Working Committee (NWC) released a fresh revised timetable/schedule of activities for the governorship, House of Assembly, Senate and House of Representatives primary elections.
The party, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, after a marathon meeting at the party’s national secretariat, disclosed that the governorship and House od Assembly primaries would hold on Thursday, Senate and House of Representatives primaries would holds on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
The party also revealed that state delegates would elect the governorship candidates while the local government delegates would elect both the Senate and the House of Representatives.
On the presidential primary, the party retained the initial scheduled Sunday and Monday, May 29 and 30.
Regarless, there are fears that the party may run into troubled waters if concerns expressed by aggrieved aspirants are not immediately addressed.
Some aspirants said the continuous silence by the leadership of the party on the zoning of the presidential ticket and the delay by President Muhammadu Buhari in pronouncing his preferred candidate were unnecessarily heating up the polity.
They expressed worry that with INEC’s refusal to adjust deadline and the plethora of issues bedevilling it, a fresh round of crisis was imminent.
An aspirant from the North said the planned meeting between President Buhari, presidential aspirants and some party leaders, may not produce the needed results that would be accepted by interested parties.
He said some of the lingering issues ought to have been addressed and resolved after the party’s convention that produced its party executives.
“If President Buhari had stepped in when he was supposed to, these issues would have been resolved. In some states, governors are at war with their lawmakers and the National Working Committee (NWC) is not doing anything. Less than a week to the conduct of the presidential primaries, we don’t know the position of the party on zoning. Everyone is waiting on President Buhari to give a clear direction. If he adopts a candidate, will other aspirants concede? Is the time enough to resolve the issues that will arise from the fallout?”
SUN NEWS
