A Federal High Court in Abuja has declared the Independent National Electoral Commission’s(INEC) deadlines for party primaries and candidate nominations invalid.
Under the commission’s revised timetable, political parties had to submit their membership registers by May 10, conduct primaries, and file requests for withdrawals and replacements for the 2027 general election by the end of May.
The Youth Party (YP) filed the suit, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/517/2016, on March 11 and named INEC as the sole defendant.
On Wednesday, Justice Mohammed Umar ruled that INEC cannot “fix or prescribe the timetable within which political parties may conduct their primary elections for the purpose of nominating candidates for the 2027 general elections.”
Additionally, Umar ruled that the commission could not legitimately reduce the statutory time frame for political parties to submit candidate details.
Consequently, the court decided that INEC could not set earlier deadlines than those set by law for candidate withdrawals and substitutions.
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