Benue State Chapter of All Progressives Congress (APC), has released its guidelines for conduct of Elections into local government councils. This is shown below;
1 QUALIFICATION TO CONTEST ELECTIONS
a. A person shall be qualified for election as a Local Government Councilor if;
i. He/She is a citizen of Nigeria
ii. He/she is not less than 25 years and is a registered voter
iii. He/she is a member of the All Progressives Congress; APC and is sponsored by the party
iv. He/She is nominated by Ten (10) persons whose names appear on the register of voters in the Ward he proposes to represent
v. He/she has produced evidence of Tax payment as and when due or Tax exemption for the last Three (3) years prior to the election
vi. He/she is educated up to at least School Certificate or its equivalent
vii. Evidence that he/she purchased the party’s interest forms.
b. For election to the office of the chairman of a Local Government Council if;
i. He/She has attained the age of thirty (30) years and is a registered voter
ii. He/she is nominated by Ten (10) persons whose names appear on the Register of Voters in that Local Government Area where he/she proposes to stand for the election
iii. He is a registered member of APC and is sponsored by the Party
iv. He/She is a citizen of Nigeria
v. He/she is educated up to School Certificate Level or its equivalent
vi. He/She has produced evidence of Tax payment as and when due or Tax Exemption for the three years prior to elections.
vii. Evidence of purchase and submission of the party’s intent form.
2. NON QUALIFICATION CRITERIA
A person shall not be qualified to contest Local Government Council Elections if;
(a) He/She voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a country other than Nigeria or has made a declaration of allegiance to another country; or
(b) Under any law in force in any part of Nigeria he /she is adjudged to be a lunatic or otherwise declared to be unsound mind;
(c) He/She is under a sentence of imprisonment for an offence involving dishonesty;
(d) He/She has been found guilty of contravention of the code of conduct;
(e) He/she is an undischarged bankrupt;
(f) if he/she is in full time salaried employment in the public service of the Federation, State or Local Government;
(g) He/she has been removed from any public office on any ground involving dishonesty;
(h) He/she has been dismissed from service;
3. PURCHASE OF PARTY NOMINATION FORMS
a. Nomination forms for the elections shall be purchased from the State Secretariat of the party as follows
i. Chairmanship N200,000
ii. Councillorship N50,000
iii. Female Aspirants shall pay 50% of the cost of forms and 10% of same for Administrative charges
iii. 10% Administrative charges shall be paid cash to the Director of Finance who shall issue receipt to that effect.
c. All payments shall be done through designated party Bank Accounts
d. Only those who bought the party’s Intent forms shall be allowed to buy nomination forms
e. Those who eventually become candidates of the party shall then buy BSIEC nomination forms by paying to Government Treasury
(i) A non –Refundable deposit of N250,000 in the case of Chairman
(ii) A non Refundable deposit of N150,000 in the case of Councilor
(e) Every candidate shall be nominated in writing by 10 persons who are members of the party in the ward and also registered voters; annexing photocopies of their INEC Voter registration
(f) For the Chairmanship, the aspirant shall be nominated by 10 persons from 2/3 of the wards of the Local Government who are registered members of the party in the wards and registered voters who shall annex evidence of voter registration from INEC
(g) No party member shall nominate more than one person for any particular elective position. In an event of a nomination signed by one person for two aspirants, such nomination shall become invalid.
(h) Those nominating aspirants shall be financially up –to- date members of the party who have paid their dues as prescribed by the party’s constitution and guideline.
4. SCREENING OFASPIRANTS
All Aspirants of the party must appear before the screening committee of the party at the designated place and time for the purpose of screening for eligibility to contest under the platform of the party.
a. All Chairmanship Aspirants of the Party shall be screened centrally in Makurdi.
b. All Councillorship Aspirants of the party shall be screened at the respective Zonal Offices of our party.
c. All aspirants are expected to appear before the screening committee with the following:
i. Party Membership Card (Original)
ii. Clearance Certificate from the ward/Local Government office of the party.
iii. Originals of school Certificates
iv. Evidence of Tax Clearance for three years
v. Evidence of Purchase and submission of Intent form to Contest
vi. Nomination form duly executed
vii. Voter’s Card
d. That the screening exercise shall commence from the 27th-29th day of June 2016 from the hours of 8:00 am -6:00 pm on the respective dates, and the cleared aspirants shall be issue with the party clearance certificate to qualify them for the party’s primaries.
e. The party in the state shall as far as possible observe the provisions of S 14 (4) of the constitution of Nigeria in the distribution of elective positions in Local Governments.
5. CONDUCT OF PRIMARIES TO ELECT PARTY CANDIDATES
a. In an event where there are more than one aspirant in the constituency, who are all duly qualified and eligible, the party shall conduct a primary election to elect the candidate for the constituency.
b. The primary election shall be a direct primary with open secret balloting where all registered members of the party shall vote.
c. The Council Ward shall constitute a polling unit where registered party members assemble for the primary elections.
d. Ward chairmen shall update their registers to accommodate all new members and bring such registers to the State Secretariat for authentication on or before Saturday 25th June 2016.
e. Accreditation, which shall be by presentation of a valid membership card shall take place simultaneously with issuance of ballot papers, where the member shall be required to write the name of the candidate of his choice and drop in the ballot box.
f. An illiterate member can be assisted by any person of his/her choice to write the name of the aspirant he/she wants and cast in the ballot box.
g. At the close of voting, the presiding officer shall count publicly and loudly and enter the results on the prescribed results sheets and the agents or the candidates themselves shall sign.
h. Where a candidate or his agent refuses to sign a result, it does not invalidate the result.
i. The results shall be entered into prescribed forms and in the case of councilor, the aspirant with the simple majority of votes is declared winner. While in the case of chairman results from the wards entered on proper result sheets and signed by agents shall be collated at the Local Government Headquarters and the aspirant with the highest number of votes, who scores 25% of the votes in 2/3 of the wards of the Local Government is declared winner.
j. The election shall be conducted by a presiding officer assisted by poll orderlies appointed by the State Secretariat of the Party.
k. No presiding or Returning officer shall conduct the primary in his/her ward or Local Government.
6. ELIGIBILITY TO VOTE AT PARTY PRIMARIES
a. A person shall be eligible to vote at the party primary if he/she is a registered member of the party in the ward.
b. He/She Presents himself/herself for accreditation by presenting his party membership card.
7. CONSENSUS CANDIDATES
a. Where in a constituency, there is only one qualified aspirant for the election, such an aspirant shall be taken as a consensus candidate.
b. The Party Executive in the Constituency and stakeholders shall sign an endorsement indicating that the aspirant is the sole candidate for the constituency and shall be accordingly adopted as the candidate of the party in the constituency.
8. PURCHASE OF BSIEC NOMINATION FORMS AND VALIDITY OF NOMINATION
(a) The Nomination papers shall be on the Form prescribed by the Commission and shall be signed by the candidate and by the persons nominating him
(b) Every candidate shall be nominated in writing by Ten (10) persons whose names appear on the Register of Voters in the Ward in respect of which an election is to be held.
(c) Every Candidate shall before his nomination paper is delivered to the commission pay to the State Government Treasury;
(i) A Non-Refundable Deposit of N250,000 in the case of Chairman
(ii) A Non-Refundable Deposit of N150,000 in the case of Councilor
(d) If after delivery to the Commission a Nomination paper and the Commission is satisfied that the prescribed deposit has been paid and other requirements of the laws have been complied with, the candidate shall be issued with form BCF 006 as evidence of validity of the nomination.
9. PROHIBITED CONDUCTS DURING CAMPAIGNS
The following conducts by candidates during campaigns are strictly prohibited.
a. No political campaign or slogan shall be tainted with abusive language directly or indirectly likely to infer religious, ethnic, tribal or sectoral feelings.
b. Abusive intemperate, slanderous or base language or insinuations or innuendoes designed or likely to provoke violent reactions or emotions shall not be employed or used by any aspirant.
c. Promote, propagate or attack other political party’s candidate or their programme or ideologies.
d. Masquerades shall not be employed or used by any political party candidate or person during political campaigns or for other political purpose;
e. No candidate shall retain, organize, train or equip any person or group of persons for the purpose of enabling them to be employed for the use or display of physical force or coercion in promoting political objective or interest or in such manner as to arouse reasonable apprehension that they are organized trained or equipped for the purpose;
f. Candidate shall not keep or use private security group of individuals by whatever name called for the purpose of providing security, assisting or aiding the political party or candidate in whatever manner.
Comr. Abba Yaro JP Hon. Onov Tyuulugh
(State Chairman) (State Secretary)
TIME TABLE
S/No DAY/DATE ACTIVITY REMARK
1 Saturday 4th June 2016 Commencement of Campaigns As per BSIEC
2 Tuesday, 7th June 2016 Meeting of State working Committee/ State Executive Committee to adopt party time table and guidelines and regulations for the elections
3 Wednesday 8th June to Friday 24th June, 2016 Commencement of purchase of party nomination forms. NOTE that Aspirants who finally become party candidates shall be responsible for further obligation with BSIEC
Close of sales and return of nomination forms Nomination forms will be sold for only two weeks and there shall be no extension of time
4 Saturday, 25th June, 2016 Display of list of aspirants who have returned their forms and are eligible for party screening
Return of Ward Registers to the State Secretariat for authentication
5 Monday 27th June to Wednesday 29th June, 2016 Screening of Aspirants
6 Th ursday 30th June, 2016 Display of list of successful candidates from the screening Exercise and hearing of Appeals and petitions arising from the screening
7 Saturday, 2nd July, 2016 Conduct of party primaries to elect candidates of the party
8 Monday 4th July, 2016 Display of list of successful party candidates for the election
9 Monday 4th July, 2016 Collection of forms BCF 002 from BSIEC
10 Wednesday 6th July, 2016 Submission of the list of the party’s candidates BCF 002 to BSIEC
11 Monday 11th July-Friday 15th July, 2016 Collection of Biodata forms BCF 001 by candidates of the party from BISIEC
12 Friday, 15th July 2016 Last day of submission of Biodata forms to BSIEC
13 Monday 18th July to Friday 22nd July 2016 Verification of particulars of candidates by BSIEC
14 Wednesday 27th July 2016 Return of suitable and unsuitable candidates verified by the Commission Form BCF 003 and BCF004 BSIEC to political parties.
15 Wednesday 3rd August-Friday 5th August 2016 Return of list of Substituted Candidates by Political Parties to the commission
16 Wednesday 3rd August to Thursday 4th August 2016 Verification of particulars of substituted candidates BSIEC
I. Chairmanship HQs
ii. Councilors LGA
17 Friday 5th August- Friday 12th August 2016 Collection of Nomination Forms by Cleared Candidates Political aspirants at BSIEC headquarters
18 Friday, 12th August, 2016 Last day of submission of Nomination Forms (BCF005) to the Commission Political Aspirants
19 Thursday 18th August –Friday 19th August 2016 Last day of submission of Second Nomination Forms by candidates whose 1st Nomination is adjudged invalid Political parties and aspirants
20 Tuesday 22nd August, 2016 Collection of validity of Nomination Forms by Candidates at the Local Government Area Offices of the Commission Political Parties and Aspirants
21 Monday 23rd August 2016 Last day of withdrawal of candidate of any/display of their names Political Parties and Aspirants
22 Thursday 25th August 2016 Display of Names of Nominated Candidates and of persons nominating them BISIEC headquarters and BSIEC Area offices
23 Friday 26th August 2016 Publication of Polling Date, Particulars of Candidates and location of polling stations BSIEC
24 Wednesday 31st August 2016 Submission of Names of Party Agents to the commission by Political Parties Political Parties at BSIEC
25 Thursday 1st September, 2016 Termination of Campaigns at 12: 00 am Midnight Political aspirants
26 Saturday 3rd September 2016 Election and Declaration of Results BSIEC
27 Monday 5th September, 2016 Issuance of Certificates of Return to Successful Candidates BSIEC
28 Thursday 8th September, 2016 Publication of Results BSIEC
29 Saturday 10th September, 2016 Re-Run Election (if any) BSIEC
30 Monday 12th September, 2016 Issuance of Certificate of return to Re-run Election. BSIEC
Comr. Abba Yaro JP Hon. Onov Tyuulugh
(State Chairman) (State Secretary)
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