Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has explained why the commission appealed recent Federal High Court judgments on election time table, saying it is to seek authoritative pronouncements from the appellate courts to eliminate uncertainty in the electoral process.

The INEC chairman who spoke at the INEC second quarterly consultative meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja on Tuesday expressed concern over the growing number of court cases involving the leadership of political parties in the recent primary elections.

He described the disputes as avoidable distractions urging parties to resolve their internal disputes in the interest of democratic stability.

Prof Amupitan maintained that the commission’s timetable is designed to accommodate interconnected activities such as party primaries, candidate nominations, verification of membership registers, printing of ballot papers, deployment of election materials and configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

The INEC chairman further urged apolitical parties to prepare for the candidate nomination phase, announcing that access codes for the commission’s Candidate Nomination Portal would be issued to parties on June 26 and assured that the commission is intensifying preparations for the 2027 general election and upcoming off-cycle polls, stressing that early engagement with political parties was necessary to address emerging challenges and strengthen confidence in the electoral process.

He disclosed that preparations for the June 20 Ekiti State governorship election were on course, with a total of 1,059,360 registered voters expected to participate in the poll.

He also said the commission would conduct bye-elections on the same day in Enugu North, Nasarawa North, Rivers South East and Ondo South senatorial districts, as well as Dawakin Kudu/Warawa Federal Constituency in Kano State and Zuru State Constituency in Kebbi State.

The Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) blamed the challenges witnessed during political parties’ primaries for the 2027 general elections on provisions of the Electoral Act 2026, saying the law forced parties into adopting flawed nomination processes.

IPAC National Chairman, Dr Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, said the exclusion of indirect primaries from the Electoral Act created legal, administrative and operational difficulties for political parties across the country.

He said the nomination exercise, which ended on May 30, exposed weaknesses in the law, particularly Section 84(2) of the Electoral Act 2026, which limited parties to either consensus or direct primaries saying many parties resorted to consensus arrangements even where multiple aspirants had purchased nomination forms, leading to complaints of exclusion and a wave of litigation.

“The experience of the just-concluded nomination exercise demonstrates that the removal of indirect primaries created considerable constraints for political parties,” Dantalle said.

He said some aspirants were persuaded or pressured to withdraw after preferred candidates had been identified by influential stakeholders, while others challenged the process in court on the grounds that genuine consensus requires the voluntary agreement of all contestants.

The IPAC chairman also said the high financial and logistical costs associated with direct primaries posed serious challenges, particularly for parties without access to government resources.

He said some parties adopted extraordinary measures to avoid situations that could trigger direct primaries, including limiting access to nomination forms and withholding information about congresses and primary election schedules.

“These developments constitute an unfortunate and unintended consequence of the current legal framework governing party primaries,” he said.

Dantalle also expressed concern over conflicting court rulings on INEC’s powers to regulate and fix timelines for party primaries, saying the development had created uncertainty among political parties and candidates.

He noted that while one court nullified aspects of the commission’s timetable, another later affirmed INEC’s authority, a situation he said could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.

The IPAC chairman further cited difficulties encountered by parties in complying with the requirement to submit updated membership registers containing National Identification Numbers (NINs) within a limited timeframe.

While acknowledging the objective of improving the credibility of party membership records, he said many genuine members were inadvertently excluded because of logistical constraints and the short period provided for compliance.

Dantalle recalled that IPAC had earlier warned about the likely consequences of the Electoral Act 2026 and had urged the National Assembly to reconsider provisions that removed indirect primaries as an option for candidate nomination.

He said recent events had validated the council’s concerns and called on lawmakers to undertake a comprehensive review of the law to address the shortcomings exposed during the nomination process.

“Electoral laws should promote democratic participation, strengthen political institutions and advance the national interest rather than create avoidable obstacles to effective political competition,” he said.