Parties Scramble As INEC’s July 11 Upload Deadline Nears
Political parties are moving at sharply different speeds to beat a fast approaching deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission for uploading candidates ahead of the 2027 general elections, with the ruling party and the leading opposition platforms reporting smooth progress even as smaller parties wrestle with the commission’s online portal.
INEC has held firm on Saturday, July 11, 2026, as the closing date for the submission of presidential and National Assembly candidates. According to the commission’s revised timetable, the window for uploading Forms EC9 and EC9A, 9B, 9C, 9D and 9E opened at 9.00am on Saturday, June 27, and shuts at 6.00pm on July 11. For governorship and State House of Assembly candidates, the portal opens on July 18 and closes on August 8. The EC9 form captures the personal particulars of each candidate, while the other forms carry the names and lists of nominees. The exercise rests on Section 29(1) of the Electoral Act, 2026, which requires that candidate nominations reach the commission not later than 120 days before an election.
The nomination process follows the conclusion of party primaries on May 30, 2026, and comes against a backdrop of unresolved post primary grievances, leadership tussles and pending litigation. INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, first disclosed the timeline during the commission’s Second Quarterly Consultative Meeting with leaders of registered parties in Abuja, noting that only candidates whose particulars are submitted within the stipulated period would be eligible to contest.
The picture emerging from the parties is one of uneven readiness. The ruling All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party and the African Democratic Congress have all indicated that they were able to load their candidates without difficulty, while a cluster of smaller parties has struggled with the process and, in some cases, questioned the wisdom of the electronic method. Beyond the portal itself, several parties are yet to finalise running mates for their governorship candidates, and a number are still untangling disputes left over from their primaries.
The National Chairman of the Because Of Our Tomorrow, BOOT Party, Sonny Adenuga, said the party was working within the rules despite hitches. “We are complying as usual. We will upload all our candidates before the deadline,” he said. He, however, expressed disappointment with the difficulties his party encountered after receiving its access code, and confirmed that he had drawn the commission’s attention to the challenge.
The Labour Party reported a smoother experience after early setbacks. Its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Asogwa, explained that the party began uploading last week and that the only obstacle had been technical. “We started uploading last week. It has been seamless. The only challenge has been technical,” he said. He offered a practical illustration of the problem, noting that the automated system sometimes rejects entries when the order of a candidate’s names does not match the list already in INEC’s records. “If, for instance, a candidate’s surname appears first on their list and we try to load using the same candidate’s first name first, the system may reject it. However, when this is reversed, the process is seamless,” he said, adding that the issue had since been resolved.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, declined to comment on the uploading process and the deadline.
The Action Democratic Party said it was on track. Its National Chairman, Engr. Yabagi Yusuf Sani, said: “We are fully compliant and progressing to meet the deadlines by INEC.”
The Nigeria Democratic Congress also reported steady progress. Its National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, said the party had been uploading names “with little or no challenges” and expressed confidence about meeting the cut off. “We are confident that we shall meet the deadline set by INEC. Our reconciliation committee and the national leadership of our party are working tirelessly to resolve all outstanding issues emanating from our primaries. We thank our loyal and dedicated members for their understanding and cooperation,” he said.
By contrast, the New Nigeria Peoples Party appeared less certain of where things stood. Its National Secretary, Dipo Olayoku, said he was not aware of the progress made since the party was granted its access code.
The APC insisted it was having no trouble interfacing with the portal. A senior figure within the party hierarchy, who asked not to be named, said the upload of candidates’ particulars was proceeding seamlessly and would be completed before July 11. The party’s readiness was echoed by Abimbola Tooki, Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy to the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, who defended the integrity of the process. “The All Progressives Congress remains committed to a transparent, fair and credible nomination process in line with the provisions of our Constitution, guidelines, and the decisions of the appropriate party organs,” he said.
That assurance comes amid friction over the party’s candidate list. The APC’s National Working Committee submitted a revised list to INEC in which it dropped six senatorial and 19 House of Representatives candidates who had emerged from primaries conducted in May 2026. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, had earlier revealed that the party received more than 700 petitions from aggrieved members over the exercise, stressing that the immediate priority was ensuring that designated candidates completed and returned their nomination forms rather than the public release of the list. Despite the controversy trailing the review, several prominent figures survived the cut, including four serving governors cleared to contest Senate seats in 2027. The party is also expected to upload President Bola Tinubu and his running mate within the week.
The two main opposition platforms projected calm. The PDP and the ADC both said they were “on cruise control,” expressing confidence in their preparations. The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Haruna Jungudo, said the party had met no technical, legal or administrative obstacles. “We are cruising, we are on cruise control. We are fine and have no issues at all. Since we started, everything has been going smoothly. We have encountered no challenges; technical, legal or otherwise, so far. Everything is progressing smoothly, and we are uploading the names of our candidates,” he said.
Jungudo also pushed back on reports of irregularities. “We have had no cases of wrongful or illegal substitution of candidates’ names,” he said, before urging members to disregard fake nomination forms in circulation. “The general public, particularly members of the party and our candidates, should redouble their efforts because there are no legal impediments to the party’s success in the forthcoming general elections. They should disregard those circulating fake nomination forms and attempting to cause distractions. The pending court case coming up on Tuesday should not be a source of concern to any party member, especially our candidates,” he said.
For its part, the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the party had successfully uploaded its presidential and vice presidential candidates and was on schedule to complete the exercise for its National Assembly nominees.
Beneath the day to day scramble lies a more complicated legal and administrative terrain. INEC has confirmed that nine parties, namely Accord, Action Alliance, the ADC, the APC, the Labour Party, the NDC, the National Democratic Party, the Peoples Redemption Party and the Social Democratic Party, collected their access codes for the national elections. The commission’s National Commissioner for Voter Education and Publicity, Mohammed Haruna, noted that parties are expected to apply for the codes themselves, adding that INEC extended the effective closing time on deadline day to midnight rather than the close of official business. “If any political party decides to wait until the deadline, INEC cannot be blamed for that,” he said.
The nomination exercise also unfolds under the shadow of litigation. INEC has appealed two Federal High Court rulings that questioned aspects of its 2027 timetable, one delivered on May 20 in a suit filed by the Youth Party and another on May 26 in a matter brought by the Social Democratic Party, warning that any attempt to dismantle parts of the schedule could disrupt the entire process. The NDC, whose registration was ordered by a court and confirmed by INEC on February 5, 2026, is itself contending with a Federal High Court judgment in Lokoja that unsettled its legal standing, even as its national leader, Senator Seriake Dickson, confirmed that the party had uploaded its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, to the portal.
The current friction over process carries clear echoes of past cycles. The 2023 general elections were dogged by disputes over candidate substitution and the eligibility of nominees, several of which ended up in court long after ballots had been cast. INEC’s decision to migrate nomination to a dedicated online portal is, in part, an attempt to close the loopholes that fed those disputes by binding parties to a verifiable electronic record. It is worth noting that governorship elections will not hold in Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa, Ekiti, Edo, Anambra, Ondo and Osun states in 2027, as those states run off cycle governorship polls.
With five days left before the presidential and National Assembly window closes, the coming days will test whether the smaller parties can clear the technical hurdles they have flagged, and whether the larger ones can keep their post primary disputes from spilling into the courts once the portal shuts.