The Independent National Electoral Commission has dismissed allegations by the Nigeria Democratic Congress that it removed the party’s preferred candidates from some State House of Assembly constituencies in Anambra and Benue states and replaced them with unauthorised names.
The Punch reported that the commission said its records showed that the candidates being disputed by the party were contained in Form EC9E submitted to INEC and signed by the NDC National Chairman and National Secretary.
The clarification was contained in a statement issued on Tuesday by the Chairman of INEC’s Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna.
“As a matter of fact, the Commission has in its possession, Form EC9E where these candidates were listed and submitted to the Commission duly signed by the National Chairman and the National Secretary of the party,” the statement said.
INEC maintained that political parties have the sole responsibility for nominating candidates for elections, stressing that the commission lacks the legal authority to select or replace nominees submitted by a party.
“Candidate nomination is, by law, the exclusive responsibility of political parties. INEC has no legal authority to select, insert, or substitute a candidate for any party,” it said.
The electoral body also explained that its presence during party primaries was limited to statutory monitoring and did not empower it to determine who should emerge as a party’s candidate.
“Monitoring a party’s primary is a statutory oversight function only and confers no power on INEC to choose or impose a candidate,” INEC said.
The commission said it had previously indicated that its electronic and documentary records would be used to establish the origin of any disputed candidate information appearing on its portal.
INEC explained that candidate lists were compiled from submissions made by political parties through the prescribed EC9 forms, which were jointly signed by their national chairmen and national secretaries.
“List of candidates were generated for each party as submitted by the party jointly signed by the National Chairmen and National Secretaries of the party, making the submission in Form EC9 series (A-G),” it said.
It therefore rejected the NDC’s allegation that the commission independently uploaded or manipulated the party’s candidate information.
“Therefore any claim that the Commission independently uploaded or altered candidate information is unfounded and untrue,” INEC said.
The commission further disclosed that all 22 registered political parties had, ahead of the 2027 general elections, nominated two technically trained officials to manage their candidate nomination processes.
According to INEC, the officials underwent training organised by the commission, after which portal access codes were handed directly to the national chairmen of the respective parties.
“Ahead of the 2027 election, all 22 registered parties designated two technically trained officers to handle their nomination process, following training organised by the Commission. Thereafter, the portal access codes were issued directly and in person to each party’s National Chairman, and not by proxy,” the statement said.
The dispute followed allegations by the NDC that candidates it did not nominate or approve had appeared on INEC’s published list for some State House of Assembly constituencies.
The party had alleged that its nominated candidates were removed and replaced with names unfamiliar to its leadership, initially identifying several affected constituencies in Anambra State.
The NDC subsequently claimed that similar discrepancies had been noticed in Benue and Imo states.
Its National Chairman, Moses Cleopas, urged the INEC Chairman to investigate the matter and determine how the disputed names found their way onto the commission’s candidate list.
“We call on the INEC chairman to urgently and immediately cause an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be,” the NDC said.
INEC, however, said its records provided a verifiable basis for determining the source of the names and reaffirmed its commitment to openness and fairness ahead of the 2027 elections.
“The Commission remains committed to transparency, accountability and providing a level playing field for all stakeholders in the electoral process,” the statement said.
