2023: 14 candidates jostle for governorship seat in Kwara, says INEC

…as 279 contest for 24 state Assembly seats

By Mosunmola Ayobami,Kwara

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Kwara State, Mallam Attahiru Madami has disclosed that 14 candidates from 14 various political parties will be contesting for the number one seat in the state in the forthcoming 2023 general elections.

The REC through the information obtained from the Legal Services Department of the Commission said that 279 candidates will be vying for 24 seats in the state House of Assembly, while 36 contestants will slug it out for the three Senatorial seats in the state.

Also, 61 contestants will be vying for the six House of Representatives seats.

Speaking with Westernpost correspondent on Monday in Ilorin, Madami gave a tentative figure of 406,571 voters that registered during the just concluded Continuous Voter Registration exercise.

“The figures I will give you is tentative because it’s subject to clean up as most Nigerians have done double registration thinking they will be able to vote more than once which is not possible with machine

“We have found out in our clean-up exercise we did that out of 2 million Nigerians that registered, over 1 million are double registration so they are regarded as invalid. That doesn’t mean they will not vote, it’s just that the registration they do newly is not valid; the old registration is valid.

“What they needed to do is a transfer or confirm if their data information are there. Multiple registration attract a fine of N1 million or a jail term of one year or both depending on the judge.

 “I don’t believe this time around INEC will wave the punishment as we have sensitize voters not to do double registration

“I believe by the 31st of August, there will be authentic figures of registrants.

“From June 28 when we started online registration till 31st of July 2022 in Kwara we have 406,571, registered voters which is a remarkable improvement on what we have in the past,” he said.

He noted that there would not be re-opening of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise till after the 2023 general elections.

The INEC boss said that voter cards for those who just registered will be ready by October this year for collection.