The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has excluded the name of Charles Soludo, a former Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor, from the list of candidates for the November 6 Anambra governorship election.
INEC published the list of candidates on Friday.
Soludo, who has the backing of the state’s incumbent governor, Willie Obiano, is thought to have won the governorship primary organised by the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) last month, but the electoral umpire, instead, listed Michael Umeoji as the party’s candidate.
According to INEC, its decision to list Umeoji, and not Soludo, as APGA’s candidate was based on a court order.
Andy Uba, a former senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District, was listed as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
This is despite the controversy that rocked the primary, which led to the emergence of two different candidates.
Also. INEC excluded the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the list of cleared candidates for the poll.
The electoral body said its decision to exclude any PDP candidate was in recognition of court judgments following the disputed governorship primary of the party.
A Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court had on Thursday ordered INEC to suspend moves to publish any name as the governorship candidate of the PDP.
Valentine Ozigbo and Ugochukwu Uba had emerged as the PDP’s governorship candidates from parallel primary elections.
A total of 18 political parties and candidates will participate in the November poll, according to INEC’s list.
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