The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has said political parties that submitted candidates whose names were not found in their membership registers will not be allowed to field candidates for the 2027 general elections.
The electoral body said this is the implication of the Supreme Court judgement delivered on September 24, 2026, which affirmed the constitutionality of Sections 77(5), 77(6) and 77(7) of the Electoral Act 2026 and upheld its revised timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 polls.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Voter Education, Malam Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this while speaking on Trust TV’s programme, Daily Politics, on Wednesday evening.
Haruna said the Commission will not allow affected parties to substitute such candidates because they cannot be allowed to benefit from their own wrongdoing.
He explained that the law is very clear that any party that fields a person who was not a member at the time of the primaries has committed an offence and cannot turn around to replace such a person with another candidate.
“It’s like you committed an offence and then you come and benefit from it. You remember cases that we had in Zamfara, you remember Plateau? The same thing. The parties, because they did the wrong thing, they thought they could now smuggle in candidates. And the law was very clear. Once you do that kind of thing, you cannot benefit from it. You are benefiting from it if you are able to substitute a candidate,” he said.
The INEC Commissioner noted that depending on when the Commission concludes its review of the Certified True Copy, CTC, of the Supreme Court judgement, some political parties may end up without governorship, national assembly and state houses of assembly candidates.
He said, “By implication, depending on when INEC finally concludes, some parties may not be able to finish with even governorship candidates. All the candidates, all the way to the houses of assembly, we interviewed them. If their names are not on the party register, they were not members of the party at the time that they contested for those tickets.”
Haruna acknowledged that Nigerians are anxious to know the full implications of the judgement, but said the Commission is being careful to avoid mistakes, adding that it has to get legal advice after obtaining the CTC of the judgement.
He disclosed that INEC only received the CTC on Tuesday and is currently studying it, assuring that a definite pronouncement will be made by next week Tuesday.
“You can’t be too careful with these things because even when you see copies and they tell you it’s a CTC, it may be forged. We’ve seen instances where people have even gone, have the audacity to forge a Supreme Court judgement. So, we have to be very careful. We did put a lot of pressure and we were able to get it yesterday,” he added.
On the rising political tension ahead of the elections, Haruna said the Commission is worried about threats and violent rhetoric being deployed by political actors, warning that such developments are not healthy for democracy.
“Those kind of things, even if it’s a minority, it’s a cause for concern, because nobody should be threatened at all. All those talks, they are not reassuring at all. There are things, there are talks, actions, that really is a cause for worry, not just for us, but it should be a cause of worry for everybody, including the ruling party,” he said.
He further disclosed that INEC is working to secure the funds needed for the conduct of the 2027 general elections, stressing that the Commission no longer has the luxury of time given the adjusted timetable.
