What the Electoral Act Says About Party Primaries

The two methods the Act allows

Section 84(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 permits a political party to nominate its candidate by direct primary or by indirect primary. A direct primary is a vote by every registered member of the party in the constituency. An indirect primary is a vote by delegates chosen by the party from each ward. The party chooses which method it will use and records that choice in its constitution. A party cannot run both methods for the same office in the same election.

Who is allowed to vote

Section 84(8) requires every registered member of the party to be allowed to vote in a direct primary. In practice this means the party opens a register of members in each ward and closes it before the primary date. The register is the list of voters. A woman who wants to vote in her party's direct primary checks her name on the ward register at least two weeks before the primary. If her name is missing, she writes to the party's ward chairman to ask for the correction.

Who signs the result

Section 84(3) requires the result of the primary to be signed by the party's national chairman and the party's national secretary. A result without both signatures is not valid under the Act. A woman who wins a primary but does not receive a signed result form may need a court order to have her name placed on the ballot. The signed result form is what the party submits to INEC as the record of the primary.

The fourteen-day window

Section 84(2) sets a window of fourteen days for the party to submit its primary result to INEC. The window opens on the date the Act fixes for nominations and closes fourteen days later. A result submitted after the window closes is not accepted by INEC. This is the deadline a woman watches most closely if the party primary is contested. If the result is not in the INEC state office inside the window, her name does not reach the ballot.

What the Act leaves to the party

The Act does not set the nomination fee. It does not set the number of delegates for an indirect primary. It does not set the screening process for candidates. It does not set the form of the nomination form the party submits to INEC. Each of these is set by the party's constitution filed with INEC. A woman reads the party constitution before she pays any fee, because the constitution names the amount, the office she pays to, and the form she receives.

What the Act does not cover

The Act does not set a minimum number of women a party must nominate. It does not require a party to hold a primary in every constituency. It does not set a penalty on a party that runs a primary without a valid register of members. These gaps are the reason the WATAG public record of women in elected office matters: the record shows which parties nominated women, in which constituencies, and whether the nomination form reached INEC inside the fourteen-day window.