The National Leader of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Seriake Dickson, has announced that only aspirants who emerge victorious in the party’s primaries will proceed to pay nomination fees and complete their documentation.
Dickson made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday following a joint meeting attended by the party’s National Chairman, Cleopas Moses, presidential aspirant Peter Obi, members of the National Working Committee and the Selection Committee.
According to the former Bayelsa State governor, all aspirants who purchased Expression of Interest Forms would be permitted to participate in the primaries due to the limited time available to the party ahead of the exercise.
He explained that only candidates who secure victory at the primaries would later report to the party secretariat to finalise documentation and pay for nomination forms.
Dickson also disclosed
that senior party officials had already been deployed across various states to oversee the primaries scheduled to hold on May 28 and 29.He urged party officials supervising the exercise to conduct themselves fairly and transparently while giving special consideration to aspirants with strong electoral prospects, particularly women and young people.
The NDC leader further warned aspirants and their supporters against acts of violence, intimidation and disorderly conduct, stressing that the party would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt the process.
Dickson admitted that the party was unable to fully implement its planned electronic voting system for the primaries because of time constraints. However, he assured party members that future primary elections would be conducted electronically.
“As I said at the dinner with aspirants, this will be the last primary election in the NDC to be conducted manually,” he stated.
