The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it has pre-qualified 14 out of 171 associations seeking to register as political parties.
The associations are African Transformation Party (ATP), All Democratic Alliance (ADA), Advance Nigeria Congress (ANC), Abundance Social Party (ASP), African Alliance Party (AAP), Citizens Democratic Alliance (CDA), and Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA).
Others are the Grassroots Initiative Party (GRIP), the Green Future Party (GFP), the Liberation People’s Party (LPP), the National Democratic Party (NDP), the National Reform Party (NRP), the Patriotic Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the Peoples Freedom Party (PFP).
Sam Olumekun, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information & Voter Education Committee in a statement recently said the decision was made following a meeting where the commission reviewed a report on the registration applications.
Olumekun said each of the 171 requests was evaluated based on its compliance with constitutional and electoral laws, as well as the commission’s own regulations.
The review process specifically referenced Section 222 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Section 79 of the Electoral Act 2022, and Clause 2 of the Commission’s Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties 2022.
INEC stated that while 14 associations have met the initial requirements to advance, 157 others have not. The commission confirmed that it would communicate the outcome of the assessment to all applying associations within the next 24 hours.
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The list of the 14 pre-qualified associations has been made public on INEC’s official website and other platforms. The interim chairmen and secretaries of the pre-qualified associations have been invited to a briefing scheduled for Wednesday, September 17, 2025, at 11 a.m. at the INEC Headquarters in Abuja.
The commission clarified that the next stage of the process involves a physical verification of all claims made by each association, in addition to the information already uploaded to the registration portal.
The final determination on whether these associations will be registered as political parties will only be made after the physical verification process is complete and compliance with the legal framework is confirmed.
INEC also reiterated that the registration of political parties is an ongoing process and that it remains open to considering applications that meet the legal criteria.
