Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP) has said it will name its presidential candidate after primaries of political parties have been concluded.
CUPP Publicity Secretary, Ugochinyere Ikenga, stated this in an interview with Daily Sun, in Abuja, on Sunday.
The CUPP is a coalition of 40 political parties, including the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Social Democratic Party (SDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the Reformed-All Progressives Congress (R-APC), a faction of the ruling party, the APC.
The parties had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), recently, where they agreed to field a joint presidential candidate for the 2019 polls and to formed a Unity Government, if it wins the election.
The CUPP spokesman noted that the MoU signed by all the political parties in the coalition indicates that all the parties are free to conduct their respective presidential primaries, after which the group would decide which of the candidates has the highest chances of winning the election.
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“The document provides that anyone of the over 40 political parties can produce the candidate.
“That means that the respective political parties are free to conduct individual presidential primary.
“When they finish there will be a meeting of the coalition partners.
“And, at the end of the day, one of the candidates will be unveiled as joint presidential candidate of the CUPP; after which other presidential candidates will withdraw from the contest.”
Aside the PDP other parties in the coalition that have unveiled plans for their presidential primaries are the SDP and ADC.
However, speculations are rife that plans by members of the CUPP to select its joint presidential candidate from the candidates nominated by all political parties in the group is just mere formality as many have resolved to adopt the PDP presidential ticket; as the candidate of the coalition.
Daily Sun gathered that this is because, of all the 40 political parties in the CUPP, the PDP has more spread and structure across the country.
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Regardless, Ikenga said while it is not in doubt that the major opposition party is a big player in the CUPP, it is premature for anyone to that the candidate of the party will automatically become the joint account candidate of the group.
“They are a big player in the coalition. But, whether they will be the one that will carry the day, I will say you wait for a few more days and everything will be clear Who told you it must be PDP?
“What if the SDP candidate has more chances of winning the election for the coalition?” he asked rhetorically.