The Peoples Democratic Movement will hold its inaugural National Convention onOctober 31 and November 1, 2014 at International Conference Centre, Abuja.
The National Convention will be for the election of national officers of the party.
This was contained in the time table released by the PDM National Secretariat on Thursday.
This followed a resolution of the National Executive Committee of the party at its meeting of October 16, 2014 held at the National Secretariat in Abuja.
The National Convention will be preceded by Zonal Congresses on October 31 at the same venue, where delegates are expected to elect a National Vice Chairman from each of the six geopolitical zones.
It will be recalled that PDM conducted its ward, local government areas and states Congresses in 28 states of the federation on August 30 and September 1 and 3 respectively.
The 28 states include Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo in the South East; Lagos, Ogun, Ondo, Osun and Oyo in the South West; Niger, Plateau and FCT in the North Central; Bauchi, Borno, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe in the North East; and Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara in the North West.
Four more states – Adamawa, Kogi, Nasarawa and Rivers States – will hold their congresses on October 25, 2014, to bring the number of states that have concluded their congresses to 32.
Article 17, Sub-section 17.2.3 of the party’s constitution requires that two-thirds of the states of the federation are represented at the National Convention.
In addition to electing national officers, the National Convention will approve amendments to the party’s constitution to reduce the number of delegates to the Convention, which currently stands at about 150,000, a number considered rather unmanageable by the party’s NEC.
The Convention will also consider and approve, among other things, the mode of selection of members of the Board of Trustees and the party’s Audited Accounts.
In a related development, the PDM has released the time table and fees for nomination of aspirants to run for primary election and emerge as the party’s candidates for various offices in the general election of 2015.
According to the time table released by the National Secretariat of the party on Thursday, collection of Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for various offices will open on November 3 and close on November 10, 2014, while all collected forms must be returned to the National Secretariat by 5pm on November 13, 2014.
Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for State House of Assembly are to cost N50,000 and N200,000 respectively; House of Representatives, N150,000 and N350,000; Senate, N500,000 and N2 million; governorship, N1 million and N4 million; while presidential aspirants are to pay N5 million and N20 million respectively.
All fees are to be paid for into the party’s designated bank accounts at First Bank and Zenith Bank, while all forms are to be collected at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja on presentation of evidence of payment obtained from the banks.
According to the party’s time table, primary election for state House of Assembly will hold at designated places across the states of the federation on November 25; House of Representatives on November 30; Senate on December 2; while governorship will hold on December 6.
The Special National Convention to elect the party’s presidential flag-bearer will hold in Abuja on December 9, 2014.
The party called on its members and the general public to take note of these events, dates and fees as no changes or review will be entertained.