By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, officially ruled out the Labour Party from the August 16, State and National Assemblies by-elections scheduled to hold in Edo State on Saturday August 16, 2025.
At an interactive session with the Media, the State Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Prof Anugbum Onuoha informed that four other parties – Accord ,Boot Party , National Rescue Movement NRM and Young Progressive Party YPP will also not be participating in the polls .
However, he disclosed that nine parties including the Peoples Democratic party PDP and the All Progressive Congress, APC, will be squaring up against themselves in the by-election.
According to the Edo state REC, while LP never indicated interest in the process leading up to the election, others, never conducted any successful primaries to select candidates.
Labour Party, the Commission further stated, did not officially notify it of its intention to be part of the electoral process, hence its primaries were not known to, and/or monitored by INEC officials.
Prof Onuoha said that of the 14 political parties that indicated interest, only nine invited the Commission to observe their primary elections .
“Fourteen political parties expressed interest. But four of them had their offices/facilities locked, and we couldn’t see anybody.
“Those ones were Accord, BOOT Party, National Rescue Movement, NRM and Young Progressive Party, YPP.
“Others, also, invited us ,but when we got there, their offices were locked with no one in sight,” the REC stated.
He, however, expressed the readiness of the Commission in conducting a transparent and hitch-free election.
“The Commission is fully prepared to conduct a transparent and hitch-free election. Bimodal Voters Accreditation System, BVAS, has been configured, while non sensitive materials have been deployed”, he noted .
The REC also informed that of the total number of 719,504 registered voters, only 617,887 have collected their PVCs.
About 101, 617 registered voters are yet to collect their PVCs.
The Source reports that by-elections will be held in Edo Central Senatorial District ,and Ovia Federal Constituency of the State. The vacancies were created by Governor Monday Okpebholo and his Deputy who had to vacate their National Assembly seats following their victory at the September 2, 204 off-circle gubernatorial polls.
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