A Federal High Court in Abuja has nullified key portions of the Independent National Electoral Commission's (INEC) revised timetable for the 2027 general election, ruling that the electoral body acted outside its statutory powers when it set its own deadlines for party primaries and candidate nominations.
Justice Mohammed Umar, who delivered the judgment, held that INEC's authority under the Electoral Act 2026 is limited to receiving notices of primaries and monitoring the process, and does not extend to prescribing when those primaries must take place.
"The powers of the defendant to receive notice of party primaries and the personal particulars of candidates, and its duty to attend, observe and monitor such primaries, do not extend to fixing or prescribing the timetable within which political parties may conduct their primary elections," Justice M. G. Umar ruled.
Under INEC's revised timetable, all political parties were required to submit their membership registers by May 10, complete their primaries, and file withdrawals and candidate replacements before the end of this month.
The court set aside all of those deadlines.
The judgment, delivered in suit FHC/ABJ/CS/517/2016, arose from a challenge filed in March by the Youth Party, which argued that INEC had effectively overridden timelines already guaranteed by statute.
The court agreed, ruling that Section 29(1) of the Electoral Act gives parties up to 120 days before an election to submit candidates' particulars, a window INEC cannot lawfully compress.
Similarly, the court held that parties retain the right to withdraw and substitute candidates up to 90 days before polling, and that INEC cannot impose an earlier cut-off.
The ruling also restrained INEC from publishing a final list of candidates before the 60-day minimum period required by law and clarified that membership register deadlines do not apply to primaries conducted to replace withdrawn candidates.
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