By Ayodele Oni
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Tuesday defended appeals filed by the commission against two Federal High Court judgments that questioned aspects of its Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Election, saying they are to ensure that the entire Electoral calendar will not be in disarray.
He insisted that the activities contained in the timetable are interrelated operational processes that cannot be arbitrarily isolated or removed.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan SAN, disclosed this at the Commission’s Second Quarterly Consultative Meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja.
He explained that the Commission had carefully considered the two judgments and taken the necessary legal steps to obtain authoritative pronouncements from the appellate courts.
The first judgment, delivered on May 20, 2026, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/517/2026 — Youth Party versus INEC — questioned certain timelines contained in the Commission’s timetable.
The second, delivered on May 26, 2026, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/720/2026 — Social Democratic Party (SDP) versus INEC — produced a mixed outcome: it affirmed the Commission’s authority to issue an electoral timetable, but simultaneously nullified certain timelines relating to the nomination and substitution of candidates.
Prof. Amupitan noted that in the SDP judgment, the court itself acknowledged that “an election timetable, without date for submission of parties’ membership register, timeframe for primaries, etc. is inchoate.
“Without this timetable, there would be chaos in our electoral system.
“While the Commission remains fully respectful of the decisions of the Courts and of the judicial process generally, these judgments raise important legal questions concerning the extent of the Commission’s constitutional and statutory powers in coordinating and regulating electoral activities,” the INEC Chairman said.
He argued that the activities in the timetable were not isolated events, but interrelated operational processes, designed to ensure the orderly, transparent, and successful conduct of elections.
According to him, while the Electoral Act prescribed timelines for certain activities, several critical electoral processes existed for which no express statutory timelines were provided, but which must necessarily be accommodated within the overall electoral calendar.
Prof. Amupitan listed such activities to include the submission and verification of party membership registers; monitoring of party primaries across the federation; pre-upload of primary results on the Commission’s designated portal; the nomination process; and printing of ballot papers and results sheets.
Others are quality assurance procedures; deployment of election materials; training of election personnel; voter education and sensitisation; procurement of sensitive materials; configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines; and compliance with statutory obligations such as inviting political parties to inspect samples of electoral materials pursuant to Section 42 of the Electoral Act, 2026.
“The Commission therefore considers it imperative that all electoral activities be harmonised within a coherent and workable framework that promotes certainty, transparency, administrative efficiency and equal treatment of all political parties,” he said.
Prof. Amupitan assured political parties and Nigerians that notwithstanding the pending appeals, the Commission remained firmly committed to conducting the 2027 General Election in strict compliance with the Constitution, the Electoral Act, and all lawful judicial pronouncements.
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