INEC Says Parties That Break Membership Rules Can't Field Candidates

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that political parties that break the rules on membership registers will not be allowed to present candidates for the 2027 general elections.

INEC National Commissioner for Information and Voter Education, Mohammed Haruna, shared this on Wednesday during an appearance on Trust TV’s Daily Politics programme.

Mr Haruna stated that the commission would not accept candidate substitutions from parties affected by the recent Supreme Court ruling on party membership registers.

He mentioned that allowing these parties to switch candidates would mean they benefit from their own wrongdoings. “It’s like you committed an offence and then you come and benefit from it. You remember cases that we had of some in Zamfara, you remember Plateau? The same thing. The parties, because they did the wrong thing, they thought they could now steal through the candidates,” he explained.

“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.”

INEC’s statement comes after a recent Supreme Court ruling that confirmed the legality of Sections 77(5), 77(6) and 77(7) of the Electoral Act 2026. The court also supported INEC’s updated timetable and schedule for the 2027 general elections.

Under Section 77(5), only members whose names are on a political party’s membership register submitted to INEC within the right time can take part in the party’s primaries, congresses or conventions. Section 77(6) says parties must use the membership register they submitted to INEC for their primaries, while Section 77(7) states that a party that does not submit its register on time cannot field candidates.

Since the Supreme Court ruling, there have been media reports speculating that some candidates could be affected. These include the APC governorship candidate in Rivers State, Kingsley Chinda, and the NDC senatorial candidate for Delta Central, Ovie Omo-Agege, who is a former deputy senate president.

Mr Haruna said the commission's rules apply to candidates for all elective positions, including state Houses of Assembly. “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,” he said.

He warned that because of this, some political parties might end up without candidates for certain positions, based on INEC’s review results. “Some parties may not be able to finish with even governorship candidates,” he added.

The Supreme Court ruling followed a legal fight over the laws in the Electoral Act 2026 concerning political party membership registers, party primaries and candidate nomination. The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) had challenged the rules in sections 77(5), (6) and (7).

Initially, a Federal High Court ruling and a Court of Appeal decision invalidated Sections 77(5) to (7) and Section 84(2), along with parts of INEC’s updated timetable for the 2027 elections. This created confusion regarding INEC’s schedule and the legal effects of parties not following the membership register rules.

However, INEC appealed the decision at the Supreme Court, which later overturned the Court of Appeal ruling and confirmed the relevant laws of the Electoral Act.

INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, noted that the commission only received the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday.