INEC: Only Recognised Party Leaders Can Access Candidate Nomination Portal

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reaffirmed that only the legally recognised national leadership of political parties can obtain access codes to upload candidates through its nomination portal.

The clarification follows claims circulating on social media that a faction of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), reportedly led by Mr. Nafiu Bala Gombe, had uploaded a list of candidates, including a presidential nominee, to the commission’s portal.

Speaking on Monday, a senior INEC official dismissed the reports, stressing that the commission conducts its dealings only with party executives whose names are officially recognised in its records and in accordance with the law.

“I am just hearing that from you. But if you check the INEC official portal, you will see the names of the party officials legally recognised by law, and we are dealing with them based on our established criteria,” the official said.

The official explained that access credentials for the candidate nomination portal are issued only to recognised party leadership, adding that the commission would publish the names of political parties and their nominated candidates after the nomination exercise concludes on July 14.

Reacting to the reports, the African Democratic Congress (ADC) also denied claims that the Nafiu Bala-led group had uploaded candidates to the INEC portal.

In a statement issued by the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC described the reports as false and insisted that INEC could not issue nomination access codes to any leadership it does not officially recognise.

According to the party, it would be impossible for the electoral commission to generate separate nomination codes for different factions of the same political party.

“Otherwise, every impostor would simply upload names to the portal and proclaim themselves the authentic leadership of a political party. That is plainly not how the law or the Commission’s processes work,” Abdullahi stated.

The party challenged those behind the claims to produce evidence that candidates were uploaded using credentials issued to individuals not recognised by INEC.

The ADC further urged the electoral commission to investigate what it described as the alleged forgery and unauthorised use of documents purportedly issued by INEC.

The party said it was confident the commission would thoroughly investigate the matter and take appropriate action against anyone found to have deliberately misrepresented the facts.