INEC Hands Over Access Codes to Nine Parties for 2027 Election Nominations

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has disclosed that nine registered political parties have obtained the necessary access codes to upload the details of their candidates for the upcoming Presidential and National Assembly elections in 2027. This revelation was made by the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Mohammed Haruna, in a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja. As of the close of work on Monday, the nine political parties that have collected the access codes include the Accord, Action Alliance, African Democratic Congress, All Progressives Congress, Labour Party, National Democratic Congress, National Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party, and the Social Democratic Party. According to Haruna, it is the responsibility of each political party to approach INEC to collect the access code, rather than the commission distributing it to individual party secretariats. He emphasized that anyone seeking to collect the code on behalf of a party must present an authorization letter from the party's leadership. Furthermore, INEC has issued guidelines for candidate nomination and has trained party officials, advising them to adhere strictly to the rules and avoid waiting until the last minute to complete and submit their nomination forms online. The commission has set June 27 to July 11 as the deadline for political parties to submit nomination forms for presidential and National Assembly candidates through its designated candidate nomination portal. Additionally, the submission of nomination forms for governorship and State Assembly candidates is scheduled from July 18 to August 8, according to INEC's timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 general election.