The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to respond soon as three different factions of the Labour Party prepare to take part in the upcoming local government elections in Lagos State.
This development was revealed by the Chairman of the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC), Justice Bola Okikiolu-Ighile (retd.), during a stakeholders’ meeting held in Ikeja on Thursday.
According to her, LASIEC received separate letters from three Labour Party groups, each inviting the commission to observe their primaries.
“Today they (the LP) invited us, unfortunately, it’s just a faction of the Labour Party that invited us,” she said. “On our records, we have three factions with different sets of names, and because of that, we had to forward a letter to INEC for advice, and we are awaiting (a response on) that. Without that, we cannot participate in any primary.”
She explained that the commission could not observe any Labour Party primary until INEC advises which faction is legally recognised.
“We have three sections of the Labour Party. We have now written to INEC to advise us on what faction we should interact with… That’s why we were not there today,” she added.
Despite the confusion, she confirmed that the Labour Party has shown interest in taking part in the July 12 elections.
“The LP party will participate. They have shown their intention to participate. What I just stated was to explain one of the reasons we were not at their primaries,” she clarified.
Justice Okikiolu-Ighile also said that 19 political parties have been confirmed for the elections, and LASIEC will attend the PDP and SDP primaries on Saturday as observers.
She added that the APC councillorship primaries held last Saturday were duly monitored by LASIEC officers across wards.
“At primaries, we just attend as observers, we don’t have any advice, we don’t have anything to tell them but to observe that a primary has taken place,” she said.