The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has excluded political parties that failed to submit their membership registers within the stipulated period from sponsoring candidates in the 2027 governorship elections, following a Supreme Court judgment affirming the mandatory nature of the requirement under the Electoral Act, 2026.
INEC disclosed this in a press statement issued on Tuesday, October 13, 2026, and signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, National Commissioner and Chairman of the commission’s Information and Voter Education Committee.
The commission said the decision followed the Supreme Court judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party, Appeal No. SC/CV/495/2026, delivered on September 24, 2026, which upheld the constitutionality of Section 77(5)–(7) of the Electoral Act, 2026.
The provisions require political parties to submit their membership registers to INEC as a prerequisite for conducting valid party primaries. The Supreme Court also upheld Item 2 of INEC’s timetable, which fixed April 21 to May 10, 2026, as the period for submission of the registers.
According to INEC, the apex court ruled that any political party that failed to comply with the statutory requirement would be ineligible to sponsor candidates in the election.
“The Court held that failure to comply with the provisions of Section 77(5)-(7), renders the defaulting political parties ineligible to sponsor any candidate for the election,” Haruna stated.
INEC explained that it applied the Supreme Court’s decision while finalising the list of candidates for the 2027 governorship elections, in line with Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which requires the decisions of superior courts to be complied with.
The commission’s clarification follows questions over the omission of some candidates from the final governorship list. It maintained that the exclusions resulted from the affected political parties’ failure to meet the membership-register requirement upheld by the Supreme Court.
INEC, however, noted that the final lists of presidential and National Assembly candidates had already been published on September 12, 2026, 13 days before the Supreme Court delivered its judgment.
The commission further reminded political parties that believe their candidates were wrongly omitted that Section 32(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026, allows them 14 days from the date of publication to notify INEC.
According to the statement, the deadline for submitting such notifications is October 24, 2026.
INEC reaffirmed its commitment to transparency, the rule of law and the credibility of the electoral process, insisting that its decisions on the governorship candidates’ list were guided by the Electoral Act and the Supreme Court’s ruling.
