Nigeria’s Supreme Court has delivered a sharp blow to the loose bookkeeping of the country’s political machines ahead of the 2027 polls. On Thursday, a seven-member panel led by Justice Adamu Jauro allowed an appeal filed by the Independent National Electoral Commission against a lower appellate ruling that had dismantled key sections of the Electoral Act 2026. The apex bench revived Sections 77(5), 77(6), 77(7), and 84(2) of the statute, slapping two million naira in legal costs on the Zenith Labour Party for mounting a baseless constitutional suit. Sloppy registers no longer pass muster.
The restored provisions dictate that parties must lodge their full membership registers with electoral officials at least 21 days before any primary election, congress, or convention. Section 77(6) bars political groupings from relying on backroom lists that differ from the electronic registers formally lodged with the commission in Abuja. Section 77(7) strips delinquent parties of the right to field candidates if party bosses fail to submit their paperwork on time. Paperwork now makes or breaks ballots.
Direct primaries and consensus choices return as the primary statutory routes for selecting party flagbearers under Section 84(2). The judgment snuffs out the familiar trick where ambitious politicians defect to rival tickets overnight to grab disputed nominations. Renegade lawmakers can no longer print fresh delegate lists in private hotel rooms when primary battles go against them. Rogue floor fights face legal hurdles.
Litigation will naturally follow as legal practitioners argue whether the ruling triggers automatic disqualifications for disputed candidacies in states such as Kwara. Electoral officers must now confirm that the voter list deployed in the field matches the exact ledger in state archives. The verdict forces regional powerbrokers to choose between genuine grassroots organisation and total disqualification at the polls. Party machines must modernise or sink.
Party secretariats must now construct verifiable digital rolls of card-carrying members rather than trusting handwritten lists compiled during evening rallies. Seasoned party bosses have historically treated membership tallies as malleable fictions to rig ballots. The Supreme Court has tied internal democracy to public records that state regulators inspect weeks before any ballot papers drop into ballot boxes. Paper registers have lost their magic.