INEC's own 2027 register deadline fell one day short of its 21-day rule

On Friday, 27 March 2026, the Independent National Electoral Commission issued a signed press release headed "Re: Revised Timetable and Schedule of Activities for 2027 General Election". It said that at a meeting with political parties on Tuesday, 24 March 2026, concerns had been raised about the period for submitting parties' registers of members, which the revised timetable had "originally fixed for 1st April 2026 to 21st April 2026". The release was signed by Mohammed Kudu Haruna, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee. The commission posted it as an image on its official X account that evening, and Vero Record downloaded that image and read it.

The release made two separate commitments. First, parties were "free to fix the dates of their primaries within the approved period from the 23rd of April 2026 to the 30th of May 2026". Second, the register of party members "must be submitted to INEC not later than 21 days before the holding of their respective primaries", and, in the release's own words, "This means that the final deadline for the submission of political parties' registers of members is extended to 10th May 2026, from the 21st April 2026 originally contained in the revised Timetable."

The 21-day requirement is not the commission's own invention. The release ties it to Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act, 2026. As reported by the press and by legal commentators, that subsection requires a party to submit its membership register to INEC not later than 21 days before the date fixed for its primaries, congresses or conventions. Section 77(5) limits participation in a primary to members whose names are on a register submitted at least 21 days beforehand, and Section 77(7) bars a party that misses the deadline from fielding candidates. Vero Record did not obtain the gazetted text of the 2026 Act for this story; the wording of those subsections is taken from press and commentary and is graded accordingly.

Set side by side, the two commitments in the March release do not fit together. This is Vero Record's own arithmetic, not a finding by any court or by the commission: counting 21 days forward from 10 May 2026 gives 31 May 2026. A party that used the final day the commission allowed for its register would therefore have been unable to hold a primary on or before 30 May, the last day of the window the same release approved. For the deadline to fit inside the window, it would have had to fall no later than 9 May. If the Act is read as requiring 21 clear days, the gap is larger still.

In practice, then, the latest date that worked for a party wanting to hold its primary on the final day of the window was one day earlier than the date the commission called the "final deadline". The release does not acknowledge this. It gives no formula for how the commission reached 10 May, and it does not say whether a register filed on 10 May would have allowed a primary on 30 May.

Seven weeks later, on 15 May 2026, the commission issued a second signed release, again over Haruna's name, headed "Submission of Political Parties' Membership Registers". Vero Record downloaded that image from the commission's X account and read it as well. It said "all 22 registered political parties have successfully submitted their membership registers to the Commission in compliance with the Electoral Act 2026", and that "all registered parties submitted their registers as of 8th May 2026, two days before the extended deadline."

The 15 May release repeated the March terms: primaries between 23 April and 30 May 2026, with each register due "not later than 21 days before the conduct of their respective primaries". It concluded that "all registered political parties complied with the requirement within the extended timeframe" and said the registers would be subjected to "the necessary verification processes in line with the law".

What that release does not contain is a record of when each party's register arrived, or the date of each party's primary. Under the rule the commission itself restated, compliance is not a single national deadline. It is a separate calculation for each party, running backwards from the day that party chose for its primary. A party that held its primary on 23 April, the first day of the window, would have needed its register in by 2 April on the same arithmetic. The statement that every register was in "as of 8th May" only shows that the last of them arrived by then. It does not show that each one arrived 21 days before the primary it was meant to support. Vero Record has found no published INEC table pairing each party's submission date with its primary date.

Vero Record also looked for these records on the commission's own website. We queried the Internet Archive's capture index for inecnigeria.org from 2026 onward and filtered for addresses containing "timetable", "2027", "revised", "primar" or "membership". The results included archived pages on older timetables and some 2027 material, such as a notice on primaries in restored constituencies and the final presidential candidate list, but no capture of either of the two releases discussed here and no per-party register schedule. That does not prove the documents were never posted there, but the versions we could obtain and read are the images on the commission's X account.

The question is no longer an abstract one. On 21 May 2026, according to Channels Television and The Telegraph, Justice Mohammed Umar of the Federal High Court in Abuja, in a suit brought by the Youth Party against INEC, set aside the commission's timetable for primaries and candidate nominations, including the 10 May register deadline. The reports say the judge held that the Electoral Act confines INEC to receiving notice of primaries, monitoring them and handling candidate documentation, and does not permit it to set its own deadlines for those activities. Vero Record has not obtained the judgment, and these points rest on the press reports.

Separately, National Update reported on 26 September 2026 that a seven-member panel of the Supreme Court led by Justice Adamu Jauro had allowed an appeal by INEC in a constitutional challenge brought by the Zenith Labour Party. The report dates the judgment to "Thursday, September 26", although 26 September 2026 fell on a Saturday. According to the report, the court held that Sections 77(5), 77(6) and 77(7), together with Section 84(2), are not inconsistent with the 1999 Constitution, and awarded N2 million in costs against the Zenith Labour Party. Vero Record has not seen the Supreme Court judgment itself.

If the report is accurate, the 21-day rule is valid law and missing it has a consequence: the party loses its ability to field candidates. That makes the date on which each party's register reached the commission, and the date of the primary it served, material facts for the 2027 ballot. The commission's two signed statements say every party complied. They do not publish the dates that would let anyone else check that claim.

Nothing in this record shows that any particular party held a primary fewer than 21 days after filing its register, and Vero Record does not suggest that one did. What the record does show is narrower. The commission's own March release set a register deadline that, counted forward by 21 days, fell outside the primary window it approved in the same document. Its May release then certified compliance for all 22 parties without publishing the per-party dates needed to test it.

Vero Record sent no questions to the commission for this story. The two releases are reproduced as the commission published them, and we would publish any per-party schedule of register submission and primary dates that the commission releases.

What this rests on

Two signed INEC press releases (27 March 2026 and 15 May 2026), downloaded as images from INEC's official X account and read in full (Grade A). The 31 May date and the conclusion that 10 May could not support a 30 May primary are Vero Record's own arithmetic (Grade C), stated as such. The Federal High Court ruling of 21 May 2026, the Supreme Court decision reported on 26 September 2026 and the wording of Section 77 rest on press reports and commentary (Grade B). The Wayback CDX search of inecnigeria.org from 2026 onward is our own check, rerun on 29 September 2026.

What this does not establish

The date each of the 22 parties filed its register and held its primary; whether any party held a primary fewer than 21 days after filing; the gazetted text of Section 77 of the Electoral Act 2026; the full texts of the Federal High Court and Supreme Court judgments; the exact date of the Supreme Court judgment (the report's weekday and date conflict); whether INEC ever posted the two releases on inecnigeria.org; which counting convention (inclusive or clear days) the commission applied.