2027: INEC Opens Up On Extending Deadline For Presidential Candidate Submission

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has ruled out an extension of the deadline for political parties to submit the names of their presidential and National Assembly candidates for the 2027 general elections.

The commission maintained that Saturday, July 11, 2026, remained the final day for the exercise, with political parties given until midnight to complete the upload of their candidates through its nomination portal.

INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this in an interview with Sunday PUNCH while providing an update on the submissions made by political parties.

“Various parties have uploaded their nominees. They have until 12 midnight to upload. The deadline is still July 11,” Haruna said.

According to the INEC commissioner, 14 political parties had submitted candidates through the portal as of the time of the interview.

The parties are the Action Alliance, African Action Congress, African Democratic Congress, All Progressives Congress, All Progressives Grand Alliance, Allied Peoples Movement and Labour Party.

Others are the Nigeria Democratic Congress, National Rescue Movement, Peoples Democratic Party, Peoples Redemption Party, Social Democratic Party, Young Progressives Party and Zenith Labour Party.

“The political parties that have so far submitted their candidates on the portal are AA, AAC, ADC, APC, APGA, APM, LP, NDC, NRM, PDP, PRP, SDP, YPP and ZLP,” Haruna said.

He added that the AA, AAC, ADC, APC, NDC, PRP, SDP, ZLP and YPP had submitted the names of their presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

According to him, APGA, LP, NRM, APM and PDP had yet to submit presidential candidates and running mates as of the time of the update.

Haruna confirmed that the APC had uploaded President Bola Tinubu as its presidential candidate and retained Vice President Kashim Shettima as his running mate.

He, however, said the ruling party had yet to submit candidates for all National Assembly constituencies.

“I can confirm to you that the APC has submitted its presidential candidate and retained Shettima as his running mate,” he said.

“The only thing is that it has not submitted candidates for all the constituencies. I think they have issues with maybe the Senate and House of Representatives, so they have not submitted some of the names.”

The INEC national commissioner further said the PDP faction recognised by the commission had not submitted its presidential and vice-presidential candidates as of about 8pm on Saturday.

“The PDP, too, has not submitted its presidential candidate. The faction recognised by INEC has not submitted its presidential candidate,” he added.

Haruna said political parties that encountered difficulties during the upload process would not automatically lose the opportunity to participate in the elections.

He explained that the electoral timetable provided a window for the withdrawal and substitution of candidates, although such changes must comply with prescribed procedures.

According to him, parties unable to upload replacement candidates may be required to appear physically before the commission, which would examine the circumstances before deciding whether to accept the substitutions.

“When they make submissions, if it is not consistent, they won’t even be able to upload, but that is not the end of the story,” Haruna said.

“When they try to do the substitution and are unable to, eventually, they may have to come physically. The commission will have to sit to interrogate the names they are replacing. That is where the commission will now take a decision.

“You know there is a provision for substitution. There is always a window for substitution of candidates. It is at that time that the commission can decide whether the proper procedures were followed and then take a decision whether to accept or not.”

He stressed that failure to complete an upload before the deadline would not automatically amount to disqualification.

“It’s not automatic that because they are unable to upload, that is the end. Under the timetable, there is a provision for substitution, but we haven’t reached that stage yet,” he said.

INEC had earlier warned that its portal would reject candidates whose names differed from those who emerged from party primaries monitored by the commission.

Meanwhile, the Young Progressives Party (YPP) urged INEC to extend the deadline, citing technical and administrative challenges encountered during the upload process.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Wale Egbeola-Martins, said the YPP would formally request an extension in the interest of fairness and inclusiveness.

“The Young Progressives Party will be advocating an extension of the deadline in the interest of fairness, inclusiveness and the integrity of the electoral process,” he said.

“Our position is informed by the fact that the party encountered several challenges in uploading the names of some of our candidates due to issues with the INEC portal, through no fault of the YPP.”

Egbeola-Martins alleged that the portal was not enabled for the party to upload some candidates who emerged from primaries conducted in compliance with the Electoral Act and monitored by INEC officials.

He maintained that other political parties experienced similar technical difficulties and called on the commission to ensure that no candidate was excluded because of problems with the portal.

“We therefore call on INEC to extend the deadline to ensure that no political party or candidate is disenfranchised as a result of circumstances beyond their control,” he said.