Ahead of the countdown to the 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) yesterday said it has begun short-listing associations qualified for the next stage of political party registration, noting that the number of applications has ballooned to 151, with eight new submissions recorded last week.
Announcing that it would unveil its shortlist immediately after the August 16 by-elections, INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, said: “Details of the latest requests, indicating their proposed names, acronyms, logos, addresses and interim leadership of the associations, are already uploaded to our website and other online platforms for public information.”
In addition to party registration updates, INEC announced the resumption of the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, reports The Guardian.
The online pre-registration phase will begin on August 18, followed by in-person registration starting August 25. Both processes will run simultaneously until August 30, 2026.
According to Olumekun, the registration will take place at 811 centres nationwide, including 774 Local Government offices and 37 State and Federal Capital Territory offices, operating from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday, excluding public holidays.
“For easy identification, the Commission is deploying an online CVR Live Locator to assist citizens in locating the registration centres nationwide. The locator will go live a day before the commencement of the CVR on 17th August 2025 and can be accessed at the following address https://cvr.inecnigeria.org/locator.”
This is as the African Democratic Congress (ADC) urged the electoral body to speed up the processes of recognising its new leaders after the party had formally informed INEC about the new members of its National Working Committee (NWC).
In a letter dated July 29 to the chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Ralph Nwosu, the party’s founder and former national chairman, along with the secretary, Sai’d Abdullahi, stated that the new leadership was approved by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
The ADC’s deputy national welfare secretary, David Itopa, had criticised INEC for not acknowledging the new NWC, despite the notification.
“It is instructive to note that the ADC, after its NEC meeting, which was held last week with the supervision of INEC, has transmitted a letter to INEC signalling the change in leadership of the party,” he wrote.
“It is, however, disturbing that INEC has yet to update its portal to reflect the change in leadership as of this moment. Nigerians should ask INEC why it is taking so long to effect the change.”
Meanwhile, a former Director of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mike Ejiofor, has urged the nation’s election management body to move beyond admission of concerns and enforce its rules regarding the premature campaigns for the 2027 elections, when it is yet to lift the embargo on politicking.
While warning that the current political developments with regard to early campaigns pose a threat to national security, he said over 80 per cent of Nigeria’s insecurity is politically motivated.
Speaking in an interview on Arise News yesterday, Ejiofor said: “Every well-meaning Nigerian, every patriotic Nigerian should be worried about this political development of campaigns two years before the election. INEC must take action to stop the political parties from engaging in activities that could lead to security problems.”
Ejiofor also called on President Bola Tinubu to focus more on governance rather than being involved in 2027 politics.
“I believe that the government should, on its own, concentrate on governance now. It’s too early in the day for all the political parties to be campaigning, forming alignments, endorsing candidates,” he said.
He further noted that the current political landscape, with parties like the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) already engaging in campaign activities, poses significant security challenges.
“We have a lot of security challenges facing us, and our security agencies are trying to contain these issues. But if you look at all these political alignments, realignment, movements, you know, coalitions, these are posing threats to our national security.
“And like I’ve always maintained, over 80 per cent of our security challenges are politically motivated, and the politicians are at it again,” he said.
Ejiofor emphasised that INEC’s warning to political parties is not enough and that the commission needs to take concrete actions to prevent these activities from escalating into security problems.
“It is not sufficient to warn them; they must take action and activate all measures, including sanctions, to stop them from all these activities that are likely going to cause a lot of security problems for our security agencies,” he said.
