The African Democratic Congress (ADC) yesterday rejected the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) updated 2026–2027 electoral timetable, alleging that it contains booby-traps that could aid President Bola Tinubu’s plot to be returned unopposed in 2027.
Agreeing with the opposition coalition, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain who has thrown his hat into the ring to challenge Tinubu in 2027, Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim, insisted that the revised timetable favours the ruling party.
Lending his voice to the issue, another PDP chieftain, Chief Bode George, warned the All Progressives Congress (APC) and INEC to desist from cheating and any form of malpractice during the election. 
Also, civil society organisations (CSOs) called for concern for the elections to go beyond the new dates and focus on how the action can lead to a credible election based.
However, human rights and electoral Advocates, Yiaga Africa backed INEC on the new dates, pointing out that the electoral body did the right thing by picking new dates for a seamless conduct of elections.
Specifically, the ADC flagged the new compliance requirements under Sections 77 and 82 of the Electoral Act 2026, which unfairly burden opposition parties while giving undue advantage to the ruling party.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the party said the requirement for political parties to submit a comprehensive digital membership register by April 2, 2026, ahead of primaries scheduled between 23 April and 30 May 2026, creates a near-impossible hurdle that could exclude other parties from fielding candidates.
The ADC contended that with this requirement, among others contained in what it termed as obnoxious Electoral Act 2026, “the so-called reform has effectively become an instrument of exclusion to clear the field for President Tinubu.”
According to Abdullahi, ”What has been presented as a routine administrative schedule of the upcoming general elections is in fact, a political instrument carefully structured to narrow democratic space and strengthen the hand of the incumbent administration ahead of the 2027 general elections.
”According to the timetable, party primaries are to be conducted between 23 April and 30 May 2026, just 55 to 92 days from today.
“However; what is more significant is that pursuant to Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act 2026, political parties are required to submit their digital membership registers to INEC not later than 2 April 2026.
”That is only 34 days away. Section 77(7) further provides that any party that fails to submit its membership register within the stipulated time “shall not be eligible to field a candidate for that election.”
It further stated: “These are not house-keeping rules. They are deliberately constructed barriers to exclude opposition from partaking in the coming election.
”It is significant to note also that Section 77(2) of the Electoral Act 2026 prescribes that the digital register of members must contain their name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, National Identification Number (NIN), and photograph in both hard and soft copies, while Section 77(6) prohibits the use of any pre-existing register other than the one that contains the specific information above.
“According to this law, failure to meet these requirements would result in disqualification,” Abdullahi stated.
He said, ”what makes this requirement of digital membership particularly insidious is that the ruling party had commenced the process of this registration since February 2025, long before it became a requirement of the law.
“This is not a product of foresight, but insider knowledge.
They knew what was coming. They therefore had one whole year to carry out an exercise that they expect other political parties to execute in one month, during which they must collect, process and collate vast digital data and transmit same to INEC by the deadline under the threat of total exclusion. This is more or less a practical impossibility.
”Democratic competition is based on a level-playing field that does not give any advantage to the contestants.
“A system where one party takes advantage of incumbency to give itself a one-year head-start on a requirement that other parties only became aware of when it is almost too late is a rigged and corrupt system,” he added.
“ADC will not do anything that will appear to confer legitimacy on a fraudulent system. We are reviewing our options, and will make this known in the coming days.
”We call on civil society, democratic stakeholders, and patriotic Nigerians across party lines to scrutinise this timetable and join us in demanding fairness, because no democracy can endure if the rules that govern it are written to suit pre-determined outcomes”, the ADC spokesman stated further.
