Excluding PDP from Plateau Rerun Contrary to Court Judgment

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), might have excluded the logo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the ballot for the scheduled Saturday rerun polls for Plateau North Senatorial district, contrary to court judgment.

The Court of Appeal judgement which ruled on the Plateau matter had said all parties should contest in the re-run.

But the PDP logo was discovered missing on the ballot papers during inspection of the material at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) office in Jos, the state capital before INEC commenced distribution to the six local government areas.

While the PDP logo was conspicuously missing on the ballot papers, those of the APC, PRP and LP were printed on the ballot.

The discovery, however, created tension within the vicinity of the CBN as officials of the party assigned to witness the distribution exercise protested the non-inclusion of their party logo on the ballot.

The PDP members and supporters, who accused the Electoral body of behaving like APC members, later moved to state INEC headquarters in Jos and protested over the exclusion of the party in the ballot for the re-run election scheduled for February 3, 2023.

Officials of the INEC assured the PDP members that the issue would be adequately addressed.

The PDP members equally demanded to see the ballot and inclusion of the PDP logo on the ballot for the Plateau North Senatorial District and Bassa/Jos North Federal Constituency where the re-rerun were expected to take place same Saturday.

Already, there had been insinuations in the opposition camp that the PDP and its candidates might not participate in the re-rerun poll following the Court of Appeal judgement which nullified the elections in the two constituencies that were won by the PDP candidate, Senator Simon Mwadkwon.

The Court of Appeal had based the nullification of their elections on the ground that the PDP which nominated them as candidates had no structure.

In compliance with the Court of Appeal decision, INEC announced February 3, 2024 as the scheduled date for the rerun elections.