Candidates whose names are not contained in the membership registers submitted by their respective political parties to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) 21 days before their primaries will not contest the 2027 general elections.
INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee of the Commission, Mohammed Haruna, stated this during a television interview on Thursday.
Haruna hinged the electoral umpire’s position on the recent judgment of the Supreme Court validating the 2026 Electoral Act.
He said although the electoral commission received the Certified True Copy of the judgment on Tuesday, its team of legal experts, including five Senior Advocates of Nigeria, are well equipped to study and advise the commission on the right steps to take.
Haruna said: “Sometimes, you can’t take the judgment at face value because your own interpretation may be wrong. So, we need expert opinion to do that. The judgment was delivered on the 24th of September, and we did not get the Certified True Copy until Tuesday.
‘’You have to be careful with these things because even when you see copies of judgments and they tell you it’s the CTC, it may have been forged.We have seen instances where people have the audacity to forge a Supreme Court judgment.
“So, we have to be very careful, and it took us a lot of time to get it. Usually, within a week, you should be able to get a CTC of a judgment. After that, we held a commission meeting. But by that time, we had not gotten the advice of the legal experts.
“I think that next week, we should be able to make a pronouncement. So hopefully, we will definitely meet next week to be able to take a decision on this.’’
Asked if some of the errant parties could change candidates, Haruna rsaid: “It’s too late to do anything.”
He added: “The parties won’t even be able to contest. It’s like you committed an offence and you want to come and benefit. The law was very clear: once you do that kind of thing, you cannot benefit. You can only benefit from it if you are able to substitute a candidate.
“But depending on when we look at the law and take a decision, some parties will not be able to field even governorship candidates.”
Haruna cited previous cases in Zamfara and Plateau States to justify the commission’s position.
Admitting that many candidates and their parties are anxious, he explained that INEC would rely on the advice of its legal team.
His words: ‘’I know a lot of people are anxious. Not just the candidates themselves; even the public is anxious. The candidates want to know if they will contest because of the Supreme Court judgment, which has strengthened our hands, because that is what this has done.
“As you know, any party that wants to contest the election must submit the list of its membership three weeks before their primaries. So, we need to really sit down, and by next week, we should be able to take a decision.”
