The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is taking judicial appeals against two judgments made recently by a Federal High Court concerning the process of scheduling for the 2027 General Election.
The body expressed concern that without an organized and harmonized timetable, confusion will arise in the commission’s process, thus failing in the execution of its mandate under the constitution.
This was revealed by INEC chairman, Joash Amupitan, in a statement made recently on Tuesday during his opening address at the commission’s Second Quarterly Consultative Meeting of political parties’ leaders held at the commission’s Abuja headquarters.
Amupitan explained the legal challenges faced by the timetable for 2027 general elections. First, he mentioned the lawsuit case FHC/ABJ/CS/517/2026 (Youth Party v. INEC) made recently on May 20, 2026.
The second legal suit case was FHC/ABJ/CS/720/2026 (Social Democratic Party v. INEC), which was made six days after the first judgment – on May 26.
According to the INEC boss, the electoral timetable comprises a sequence of logistical activities which are not isolated processes.
There were logistical activities that did not have specific time frame in the electoral timetable but had to fall within the context of a comprehensive process like verification of party membership registers, monitoring of nationwide primaries, pre-uploading of primary results, printing of ballot papers, setting up of BVAS machines and inviting political parties to examine the electoral materials.
Based on his submission, Amupitan said there are many legal issues that have been raised by those judgments as to the scope of the powers of the Commission under the Constitution and the Electoral Act as regards regulation of electoral activities.
As such, he said, the Commission believes that it is necessary for all electoral activities to be harmonized in an effective manner.
With regards to the updates for immediate upcoming elections, the INEC boss disclosed that the number of registered voters for the Governorship Election in Ekiti state is 1,059,360 registered voters.
The number was arrived at after adding 66,664 voters who registered through the CVR process to the 2023 data after cancelling 2,103 duplicate entries.
The Commission has promised that the logistics and deployment of technology would be made available on time to ensure that all the 2,445 polling units across the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State would commence voting at 8:30 a.m. on the voting day.
At the same time, INEC will hold legislative bye-elections across six federal and state constituencies comprising Enugu North, Nasarawa North, Rivers South-East and Ondo South Senatorial Districts, employing the same technological and security standards employed earlier.
While looking ahead, INEC stated that adherence to the timetable for the Osun State Governorship Election scheduled for Saturday, August 15, 2026 should be ensured, even as it warned that internal party litigation remains an unnecessary distraction.
INEC further stated that the access code for the automated Candidate Nomination Portal would be released on Friday, June 26, 2026 for the 2027 political season.
Parties were advised to get ready their technical teams because the portal would automatically lock up on expiration of the time set.
Speaking for the political caucuses, the National Chairman of IPAC, Yusuf Dantalle, condemned the legal contradictions contained in the rulings and supported INEC’s intention to appeal the judgments as they make the process confusing for the candidates.
On the other hand, the chairman was upset at the National Assembly on the recently passed Electoral Act of 2026, particularly Section 84(2).
The section bans indirect primaries and forces political parties to conduct their primaries using the direct process or consensus.
Dantalle claimed that this provision has put a huge burden on the nominations, which had ended on 30th May 2026.
It should be noted that the consensus made the contenders withdraw from the race to accommodate preferred candidates.
Conclusively, the IPAC denounced violence in Osun state and urged all political players to engage in an issues-oriented campaign ahead of Ekiti and Osun elections and 2027 general elections.
