INEC Rejects NDC’s Claim Of Candidate Substitution

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has rejected allegations by the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) that it removed the party’s validly nominated candidates for some State House of Assembly constituencies in Anambra and Benue States and replaced them with unauthorised names.

INEC, in a statement on Tuesday by Mohammed Haruna, Chairman of its Information and Voter Education Committee, described the allegations as unfounded.

The commission said candidate nomination was the exclusive responsibility of political parties and that it had no legal authority to select, insert or substitute candidates for any party.

“Candidate nomination is, by law, the exclusive responsibility of political parties. INEC has no legal authority to select, insert, or substitute a candidate for any party,” said Haruna.

It added that its monitoring of party primaries was a statutory oversight function and did not give the commission the power to choose or impose candidates.

INEC said all 22 registered political parties designated two technically trained officers to handle their nomination processes ahead of the 2027 general elections, following training organised by the commission.

According to the commission, portal access codes were subsequently issued directly to the national chairmen of the parties, while candidate lists were generated from submissions jointly signed by the National Chairmen and National Secretaries in Form EC9 series (A-G).

“Therefore any claim that the Commission independently uploaded or altered candidate information is unfounded and untrue,” he said.

INEC also said it had Form EC9E in its possession showing the candidates in question as having been listed and submitted by the NDC and duly signed by the party’s National Chairman and National Secretary.

The commission’s response followed an allegation by the NDC that INEC had removed its nominated candidates for several State Houses of Assembly seats and published names unknown to the party.

On Sunday, the NDC National Chairman, Sen. Moses Zuwoghe, had accused INEC of systematically replacing the party’s candidates with “strange names unknown to the party”.

The party said the alleged substitutions were particularly noticeable in Anambra State, where it listed 10 names published by INEC for various constituencies.

It claimed that the affected names were not authorised by the party or submitted through its nomination process.

“The Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, totally condemns the action of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and it’s officials over the uploading and publication of unauthorized names in various constituencies, principally in the Anambra State House of Assembly (home state of our Presidential Candidate, His Excellency Peter Obi), where ten (10) names, unknown to the party; names not authorized by the party; names not sent by the party to INEC, in accordance with the law, have now been uploaded and published as candidates of the party,” said the NDC.

The party called on the INEC Chairman to investigate how the names were uploaded.

“We call on the INEC Chairman to urgently and immediately cause an investigation into the matter and unravel how this came to be,” it stated.

The NDC also called for the investigation to be extended to other constituencies in Benue, Imo and other states, alleging that there was a pattern of authentic candidates being replaced with candidates chosen by INEC.

The party said it was conducting its own investigation and alleged that preliminary findings pointed to the involvement of INEC officials.

“We, as a party, are also carrying out our own independent investigation, the preliminary findings of which are already pointing to the complicity of INEC officials in foisting names purporting to be our candidates, but who are not from us, and using the uploading process as a tool of blackmail and intimidation against the party, and getting those names to be uploaded and published, for whatever purpose or ulterior motive,” it added.

The NDC Chairman said the party had completed its primaries and appeal process before producing a final list of candidates with the involvement of party stakeholders, representatives of its presidential candidate and the appeals panel.

He alleged that after the list was uploaded using the access code issued to the party, nine names in Anambra were kept on “Pending” status by INEC officials.

“Their claim was that their system already had those names, which they said were submitted by their officials who monitored the NDC primaries on the field,” he claimed.

According to Zuwoghe, the party subsequently appealed against the names and submitted what it described as the actual candidates nominated through its process, but INEC allegedly retained the disputed names.

He further alleged that INEC obtained Form EC-9 directly from the affected candidates and published them, bypassing the party.

“To further confirm that there was a predetermined effort on the part of INEC to impose the said nine candidates on the party, and embarrass both NDC and Mr. Peter Obi, INEC went behind the NDC to collect the Form EC-9 directly from the candidates, bypassing the party, and uploading same. It then went ahead to publish the controversial names as authentic candidates of the party,” he stated.

The NDC said the action was contrary to the Electoral Act and INEC’s guidelines, arguing that where there was a dispute over a party’s submission, the commission should have left the affected positions vacant rather than publish candidates the party did not recognise.

“At the very worst, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions, if they knew they were unwilling to engage us in addressing any perceived anomaly,” the party said, adding that it would pursue the matter until the disputed names were reversed.