The All Progressives Congress primaries to elect the party’s candidate for the forthcoming Osun State governorship election has been postponed from Thursday to Friday.

The postponement of the primaries was contained in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, on Thursday.

The postponement came amid the inspection of the ballot boxes to be used for the election by the Primary Election Committee chaired by the Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul’aziz Abubakar Yari.

The committee will also be holding a meeting with stakeholders in Osogbo, the Osun State capital, on Thursday.

The National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, had on Monday said the party would adopt the direct primary to pick its candidate for the election.

Oshiomhole said: “We have decided that in order to ensure popular participation, and to deepen democracy in Osun State, in line with the provision of our party’s Constitution, which allows for either direct or indirect primary, we have resolved that the governorship election primary will be conducted on the basis of direct primary.

“What that means is that every card carrying member of our party will participate in the process of nominating the flag bearer of the party.

“This, for us, is the most democratic way to conduct election and is in line with what our critical stakeholders from that part of the country want and we are quite happy to oblige.”

Oshiomhole had explained that the essence was to allow more party members to participate in the process of nominating its candidates and to remove issues of corruption or monetising the processes.

He added that the direct primary would give party members a sense of ownership of the outcome of the exercise.

There are 17 aspirants seeking the ticket of the party who have obtained the Expression of Interest and Nomination forms for the primaries.

They have all been cleared.

All political parties fielding candidates for the Osun governorship election have up to July 23 to submit the name of their candidates for the election to the Independent National Electoral Commission.

A political party could however, substitute its candidate afterwards, if the need arises.