The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed Nov. 8, 2025, for the conduct of Anambra governorship election.

INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this at a regular consultative meeting of the commission with political parties in Abuja on Thursday.

Mr Yakubu said that the announcement was in line with Section 28(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 which required the commission to issue the notice for election, not later than 360 days before the date of such an election.

“As you are aware, the last governorship election in Anambra State was held on Nov. 6, 2021. By the effluxion of time, the governorship election is due next year.

“Consequently, the commission has approved that the 2025 Anambra State governorship election should hold on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025.

“In compliance with the mandatory requirement of 360 days, the formal notice for the election will be published on Nov. 13, 2024.

“Party primaries will be held from March 20, 2025 to April 10, 2025. The candidate nomination portal will open at 9 a.m. on April 18, 2025 and close at 6 p.m. on May 12, 2025.

“The final list of candidates will be published on June 9, 2025. Campaigns in public by political parties will commence on June 11, 2025 and end at midnight of Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025.

“Voting will take place in all the 5,720 polling units across the state on Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025,” Mr Yakubu said.

He said that in the coming weeks, INEC would provide details of other electoral activities, including the registration of new voters, transfer of voters and the replacement of lost or damaged PVCs.

He stated that the detailed timetable and schedule of activities for the election would be uploaded to INEC website and social media platforms before the end of the meeting.

Mr Yakubu also said that the hard copies of the timetable and schedule of activities would be made available to the party leaders.

He urged political parties to use the INEC timetable to come up with their own timetable and schedule of activities to enable the commission to work with them.

This, according to him, will also help INEC to plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of party primaries and campaign activities.

“By doing so, you will avoid the last-minute rush, with the attendant inability to meet deadlines,” he said.

On the forthcoming Ondo governorship election, Mr Yakubu said that INEC had successfully accomplished 10 out of the 13 activities listed in its timetable and schedule of activities for the exercise.

He said what remained now were publication of the notice of poll, the last day of campaign and election day.

The INEC chairman commended all political parties fielding candidates for the election for fully complying with the requirements for the upload of summary of the list of polling and collation agents for the election.

He assured them that INEC was working in earnest to deliver the identification tags for each of the 24,148 agents uploaded to its portal.

“The commission is also glad to report that the collection of Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) from the last continuous voter registration (CVR) commenced today in Ondo State.

“For the next five days (Oct. 17 – Oct. 21), the cards will be available for collection at each of the 203 wards across the state.

“Thereafter, the cards will be available for collection in our 18 local government area offices in the state for one week (Oct. 23 – Oct. 29).

“As earlier announced, the centres will be open to citizens from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. daily,” he said.

In his remarks, the national chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), Yusuf Dantalle, urged INEC to improve on the Nov. 16 Ondo governorship poll.

Mr Dantalle also advised the commission to put its acts together, provide adequate electoral materials, test-run its Bimodal Voting Accreditation System (BVAS) and results viewing portal (IReV) to avoid undue technical glitches that would cast doubt on the integrity of the election.

“The issue of late arrival of election materials to some polling units must be addressed to reinforce confidence in the polls.

“Equally important is effective communication by the commission’s officials, particularly during the collation of results, to avoid suspicion of manipulation of results as it happened in the Edo governorship election where some politicians stormed the collation centre to know why collation of results was suspended.

“Nigerians, indeed the entire world, expect transparency in the conduct of elections,” he said.

The IPAC chairman called on security agents, election observers and the media to discharge their duties with utmost responsibility and patriotism.

“Vote trading has been the bane of most elections in Nigeria. Security agents should apprehend and prosecute vote buyers and sellers and their sponsors and make them face the full weight of the law.

“We must sanitise the electoral process to stimulate increased restoration of trust that will encourage citizens’ participation in elections,” he said.

Mr Dantalle urged governments at all levels to take urgent steps to ameliorate the hardship currently being faced by Nigerians.

This, according to him, will spur citizens’ political participation that will give more credence to the electoral process.

(NAN)