By DADA AYOKHAI
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has given political parties who claim that their candidates were wrongly omitted from the final list recently released by the Commission a 14-day window to formally lodge complaints, with a deadline of October 24, 2026.
The Commission’s statement was issued on October 13, 2026, through the National Commissioner and Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna.
According to the statement, the Commission acted in line with court decisions over political parties’ failure to comply with provisions of the Electoral Act, 2026.
The Commission said its action followed a Supreme Court judgment delivered on September 24, 2026, in _INEC v. Zenith Labour Party_, Appeal No. SC/CV/495/2026.
INEC said the case arose from its appeal against a Court of Appeal judgment that nullified Section 77(5)-(7) of the Electoral Act, 2026, which requires political parties to submit their membership registers as a condition for valid party primaries.
According to the Commission, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality and mandatory nature of the provisions, as well as Item 2 of its timetable, which required political parties to submit their membership registers between April 21 and May 10, 2026.
The court also held that parties that failed to comply with the provisions were ineligible to sponsor candidates in the election, INEC said.
The Commission explained that, pursuant to Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, it applied the Supreme Court judgment when finalising the list of governorship candidates, excluding parties that failed to meet the requirements of Section 77(5)-(7).
INEC noted that the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates had been published on September 12, 2026, before the Supreme Court delivered its judgment.
Meanwhile, in Edo North District, an Edo State House of Assembly candidate for Etsako Central Constituency, Mathias Aliu of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), had his name omitted from the list of House of Assembly candidates.
Aliu, who emerged through a substitution arrangement reportedly supervised by the party and INEC, said the name of the substituted candidate surprisingly reappeared on the final list.
