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| Supreme Court of Nigeria |
The Supreme Court has reinstated critical sections of the Electoral Act 2026 governing party membership registers and the nomination of candidates. The decision has immediately raised questions about the validity of several 2027 tickets across the APC, PDP, NDC and other parties.
A seven-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice Adamu Jauro, delivered the ruling on 24 September 2026. It set aside an earlier Court of Appeal decision that had declared Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7) and 84(2) unconstitutional. The Supreme Court held that the provisions do not conflict with the 1999 Constitution.
The restored sections require political parties to submit their membership registers to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) within the stipulated timeframe. Only persons whose names appear on the register submitted to INEC may vote or be voted for at primaries, congresses and conventions. Parties are barred from using any other register. A party that fails to submit its register on time cannot field candidates. Section 84(2) further restricts nominations to direct primaries or consensus.
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Importantly, the judgment does not automatically disqualify any candidate. The court drew a clear distinction between an individual’s constitutional qualification to contest an election and whether the nominating party complied with the statutory rules for conducting its primaries. Any challenge will therefore turn on evidence that a party or candidate breached those specific requirements.
INEC has received the certified true copy of the judgment and is studying its practical implications. The commission is expected to clarify its position in the coming days.
Attention has focused on politicians who switched parties close to the primary period. In Rivers State, questions have been raised about the exact timing of APC governorship candidate Kingsley Chinda’s membership. Chinda, who previously served as minority leader of the House of Representatives on the PDP platform, emerged as the APC candidate on 21 May. His formal defection announcement came later. The Rivers APC insists he met all legal requirements.
In Delta State, former Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege and former House of Assembly Speaker Victor Ochei left the APC for the NDC after obtaining waivers. Both secured NDC tickets. The party maintains that the nominations remain valid.
In Gombe, former minister Isa Pantami left the APC, joined the PDP and later won a fresh direct primary on 29 September after an earlier primary was nullified by a Federal High Court on procedural grounds. The court did not disqualify him over his previous APC membership.
Similar questions have been raised about certain PDP senatorial candidates in Kwara and about former senator Iyabo Obasanjo’s candidacy in Ogun Central. The parties concerned have rejected suggestions that the Supreme Court ruling automatically invalidates those tickets.
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A separate challenge involving the membership register of PRP presidential candidate Donald Duke was dismissed by the Federal High Court in Abuja on 30 September as statute-barred and unproven. No prominent ADC candidate has so far been publicly identified as affected.
Human rights lawyer Deji Adeyanju has called on INEC to remove any candidates found not to have complied. The commission has said it will carefully examine the certified judgment before taking any action.
The ruling shifts the focus of potential litigation onto concrete evidence: the actual contents of the membership registers submitted to INEC, the precise dates candidates became members, the method used for nominations, and whether challengers can prove non-compliance in court. How INEC interprets and applies the judgment will influence the political landscape heading into the 2027 elections.
Samuel O. Sulaimon is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Naijapiz. He covers News, Sports, Finance, Faiths, Education, Technology.
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