The presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2019 general elections will be chosen via direct primary and governorship candidates and others through indirect primaries and concensus.
This was the decision reached at the APC NEC meeting which held at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on Thursday.
The NEC meeting is the second-highest decision-making organ of the party after the National Convention.
Disclosing what transpired at the meeting while briefing the media, Plateau State Governor, Simon Lalong disclosed that only the presidential candidate was agreed to be chosen via direct primary.
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He said the states were allowed to choose their candidates for other positions based on the peculiarities of the states.
Lalong further disclosed that it was agreed that states that were desirous of adopting the direct primary option would get clearance from the National Secretariat before doing so.
The Plateau governor said, “ The constitution of the party provides for either direct, indirect or consensus but for the presidential election we all agreed that we will adopt direct primaries for the presidential election .
“ Also a recommendation was made by the National Working Committee that the other states should adopt the indirect mode but there may be situations that this might be a difficulty in the state looking at their peculiarities . So , if there are such difficulties they can apply following the process . ”
Lalong, while responding to a question on automatic tickets, said, “ We didn’t discuss the issue of automatic ticket . But we discussed that yes, patriotic and loyal members should be rewarded but not necessarily with automatic ticket . We are saying some senators , our senators who are patriotic , who are supposed to be taken away were all kept in the party .
“ So , all states should look at and then we will find ways of rewarding them. But election is giving option for everybody to contest election . ”
He further disclosed that, while the NEC meeting left the decision on the cost of nomination and expression of interest forms to the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), it was agreed that the cost be reasonable.
The Governor of Kogi, Yahaya Bello, who equally spoke on the issue of automatic tickets, said, “People refer to issue of automatic ticket to governors and legislators . In our party , we have a reward system.
“ You surely will not throw away a loyal party man . You will not punish a loyal party man . We will always support and reward those legislators who were supposed to have been taken away in a deceitful manner but stood by Mr President , with this country , those that are patriotic to this party and this country surely will be rewarded in one way or the other . ”