Political parties may be barred from participating in the 2027 elections if they fail to comply with Section 77 of the 2026 Electoral Act, TheCable reports.
President Bola Tinubu signed the amended electoral law on February 18, following its approval by the National Assembly.
Under Section 77(2), parties must submit a full online register of their members to INEC at least 21 days before their primaries.
The register must include members’ names, gender, date of birth, address, state, local government, district, polling unit, National Identification Number (NIN), and photograph, both digitally and on paper.
Section 77(7) stipulates that any party failing to submit the register on time will not be allowed to field candidates.
INEC’s new election timetable sets January 16, 2027, for the presidential and National Assembly elections, and February 6, 2027, for governorship and state assembly elections.
Parties must submit their membership registers by April 21 and conduct primaries between April 23 and May 30.
Opposition parties, including ADC, have rejected the provision, claiming it is designed to restrict democracy.
ADC spokesperson Bolaji Abdullahi called the section “a deliberate barrier” aimed at excluding opposition parties from the elections.
Political analyst Ose Anenih warned that opposition parties may struggle to meet the requirements, predicting that possibly only one or two parties may successfully field candidates in 2027.
