Anxiety is mounting in various political camps across the country as governorship and House of Assembly aspirants will today know their fate on whether they will be cleared to contest the forthcoming off-cycle elections.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to resolve lingering uncertainty over the eligibility of dozens of governorship and state-legislature candidates when it publishes its final list of contenders on Saturday, following a Supreme Court ruling that tightened rules on party membership and primary participation.
The Electoral body must publish the names and addresses of all nominated candidates at least 60 days before the February 6, 2027, governorship and State House of Assembly elections, under Section 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2026.
The uncertainty stems from a September 24 Supreme Court decision affirming Sections 77(5), 77(6) and 77(7) of the Electoral Act, which govern party membership registers and participation in primaries.
The ruling effectively means candidates who took part in more than one party’s primary, or whose names were absent from their party’s register as of May 2026, could be barred from the ballot.
The judgment has unsettled politicians who switched parties shortly before the deadline for parties to submit membership registers to the commission.
INEC has warned that parties fielding candidates absent from those registers may be prevented from participating in the 2027 elections through such candidates.
INEC National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna said parties whose candidates are disqualified will not be permitted to replace them.
“It’s like you committed an offence. And then, you come and benefit from it,” he said in a television interview, citing past court decisions that nullified election outcomes in Zamfara and Plateau states.
The Commission said it interviewed candidates for offices ranging from governorship to state assembly seats and found that some were not listed in their parties’ registers when they sought nominations.
The ruling All Progressives Congress urged INEC to begin strict enforcement of the Supreme Court decision, calling on parties to comply with digital membership-register requirements ahead of primaries, congresses and conventions.
The appeal came two days after INEC’s warning that noncompliant parties could lose access to the ballot.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan said 21 of 22 registered political parties nominated 936 governorship and deputy-governorship candidates across 28 states, along with 9,692 candidates for state assemblies.
Governorship elections are scheduled in 28 states, including Lagos, Rivers, Kano, Kaduna and Borno.
Elections in Edo, Bayelsa, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Imo, Anambra and Kogi are held off-cycle, while State House of Assembly contests will occur in all 36 states.
The deadline for candidate substitutions closed on September 19, and the final date for submitting nomination forms was September 26.
