By By Elsie Udoh
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Abia, Prof. Uche Ikonne was declared dead on Wednesday.
BlackBox Nigeria had reported that Ikonne was confirmed dead by his son, Dr Uche Ikonne Chikezie who said that his father died at the National Hospital, Abuja following a brief illness.
Following the vacant position left by the death of the PDP governorship candidate, further research was prompted to examine what is to be the fate of the party regarding the governorship polls coming up in March.
Section 33 of the 2022 Electoral Act provides that a political party can only substitute registered candidates in cases of death or withdrawal by the candidate.
“A political party shall not be allowed to change or substitute its candidate whose name has been submitted under section 29 of this Act, except in the case of death or withdrawal by the candidate: Provided that in the case of such withdrawal or death of a candidate, the political party affected shall, within 14 days of the occurrence of the event, hold a fresh primary election to produce and submit a fresh candidate to the Commission for the election concerned,” the Act reads.
This implies that the People’s Democratic Party(PDP) can not handpick a candidate to replace the late Ikonne but would have to conduct another primary election to produce a new candidate for the governorship candidate position.
This is supported by Section 34 (1) of the Act which states that if a nominated candidate dies before the commencement of the poll, “the Commission shall appoint some other convenient date for the election within 14 days”.
Therefore, while there has been no mention by the party of who will be the possible replacement for the late Ikonne, a primary election is expected to be held on the 9th of February, 2023 to select the candidate who will represent PDP in the polls.
