Two leading opposition political parties in Anambra State have expressed satisfaction with the timetable for the state’s 2021 gubernatorial election released by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday.

According to the timetable, the election will hold on November 6, while the conduct of party primaries and resolution of issues around it will hold from June 10 to July 1.

Also, submission of candidate forms by parties will end on August 6, while campaigns will commence on August 8 and end on November 4.

In a reaction, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Anambra, Ndubuisi Nwobu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the timetable was long awaited.

Mr Nwobu said it did not come to the party as a surprise as it had been ready all along.

He said INEC has the constitutional powers to issue guidelines on election ”and that is what it has just done”.

“We are comfortable with the timetable, it has not come to us as a surprise, if the date had come earlier than that, we would not have had any issue because we have been doing our work,” he said.

On his part, the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Basil Ejidike, said his party welcomed the timetable with delight.

Mr Ejidike said the APC was now strong and united more than ever.

He said that the party had no misgivings about their chances in the election because it had identified its fault lines in previous elections and was working on them.

“It is not a surprise to us, INEC made it known before now that the election would come up in November, we have been getting prepared.

“We learnt our lessons from what happened in the past and I want to assure that it will not happen again.

“Before now, we are like a house divided but this time, no one will be left behind, we are going into the election as one body,” he said.