…as INEC moves to begin implementing apex court’s decision against candidates who violated Electoral Act
Indications have emerged that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is considering moving against candidates who violated certain provisions of the 2026 Electoral Act in respect to Thursday’s judgment of the Supreme Court.
Candidates who emerged in controversial primaries have been of the opinion that since the Supreme Court did not mention any candidate by name, INEC cannot take any action on them without a recourse to the court for direct pronouncement.
A highly reliable source in INEC who spoke with Daily Trust confirmed that the commission is worried about the anxiety generated as a result of the judgement and the various interpretations it is being given that it may go ahead and impose the necessary sanctions once the legal department okays the action.
It was learnt that due to the time limit before the commission releases the final list of candidates, it may not have the luxury of time to wait for the outcome of further litigations before it could take definite actions on the confirmation of candidates.
The Commission’s official timetable provides for the publication of the final list of candidates for the Presidential and National Assembly elections not later than September 12, while the governorship and state Assembly final list is scheduled for October 10, 2026.
Inside sources say due to time constraints the commission is bound to come out with a position by next week as it is making efforts to get the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgement with a view to acting on it.
When contacted, INEC National Commissioner, Information and Voter Education, Malam Mohammed Haruna, confirmed that INEC is working towards reviewing the judgement after obtaining a CTC of the judgment.
He said ordinarily, it takes about a week to obtain the CTC but that the judgment was delivered on the 24th of September which is not up to a week, adding that immediately the commission obtains the judgment, the legal department of the commission would get to work after which there would be a meeting of the commissioners, where a position would be taken on the matter.
He also confirmed there are lots of issues pertaining to the judgment that would have to be resolved as there’s a lot of anxiety in both the commission and in the political parties as no one is certain about what may become of the fate of candidates who are seen as falling in the category of those that may be affected by the judgement.
There are fears candidates who emerged late or after presenting themselves for elections on other platforms like ex-IGP Mohammed Adamu, Sheik Isa Pantami; Kingsley Chinda; Shehu Buba; Mohammed Nami, may be affected.
Section 77 states in part that a party shall maintain a digital register of its members containing the name, sex, date of birth, address, State, Local Government, ward, polling unit, National Identification Number and photograph in both hard and soft copies.
Each political party shall make such register available to the Commission not later than 21 days before the date fixed for the party primaries, congresses or conventions; Only members whose names are contained in the register shall be eligible to vote and be voted for in party primaries, congresses and conventions while a political party shall not use any other register for party primaries, congresses and conventions except the register submitted to the Commission. And that a party that fails to submit the membership register within the stipulated time shall not be eligible to field a candidate for that election.
(Source: Daily Trust with modified headline)
