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The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has rejected the inclusion of 10 Anambra State House of Assembly candidates on the Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) published list, insisting it neither nominated nor submitted their documents.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by its Director of New Media and Strategic Communications, Agada Abuh Theophilus, the party demanded an immediate electronic audit of INEC's candidate nomination portal to determine how the disputed names and Form EC9E documents were uploaded.
The NDC maintained that the affected candidates did not emerge from its nomination and appeal processes and were never approved by the party.
It argued that political parties are solely responsible for submitting the names and credentials of their candidates, insisting it never forwarded Form EC9E documents for the 10 individuals published by INEC.
The party questioned how the electoral commission obtained the credentials of the candidates and called for a full explanation.
According to the NDC, its National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas, was the only custodian of the party's access code to the nomination portal and never uploaded the disputed names.
The party said that after its primaries and appeal process, party stakeholders, representatives of its presidential candidate and members of the appeals panel agreed on a final list of candidates, which was subsequently uploaded to INEC's portal.
However, it alleged that some of its nominees were left on "Pending" status because the portal already contained names reportedly submitted by INEC field monitors during the primaries.
The NDC claimed it formally appealed the disputed nominations and submitted its preferred candidates, but INEC declined to replace the names already on the portal.
It further alleged that the commission later accepted Form EC9 directly from the disputed candidates and published them as the party's authentic nominees, contrary to the Electoral Act and INEC guidelines.
Senator Cleopas argued that if there were discrepancies between the party's submissions and reports from INEC officials, the commission should have left the affected positions vacant instead of preventing the party from fielding its chosen candidates.
He also accused INEC of imposing candidates on political parties, particularly opposition parties, warning that such actions could trigger unnecessary internal crises.
The NDC vowed to pursue the matter until it is resolved and renewed its call for an independent electronic audit of the nomination portal to determine how the disputed names were entered into the system and ensure transparency in the candidate nomination process.
