The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan, has explained why the Commission filed appeals against two recent Federal High Court judgments that questioned aspects of its Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Election.
He stated that the absence of coordinated electoral timelines would create uncertainty and undermine the Commission’s constitutional mandate.
Prof. Amupitan disclosed on Tuesday, while delivering his opening remarks at the Second Quarterly Consultative Meeting with Leaders of Political Parties held at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
“These judgments raise important legal questions concerning the extent of the Commission’s constitutional and statutory powers in coordinating and regulating electoral activities,” Amupitan said.
He said the Commission had filed appeals against both decisions and taken the necessary legal steps to obtain authoritative pronouncements from the appellate courts, stressing that the activities contained in the timetable were not isolated events but interrelated operational processes essential to the orderly conduct of elections.
Amupitan listed critical electoral activities for which the Electoral Act prescribed no express statutory timelines but which must nonetheless be accommodated within the overall electoral calendar.
These include the submission and verification of party membership registers, the monitoring of party primaries across the country, the pre-upload of primary results on the Commission’s portal, the printing of ballot papers and result sheets, quality assurance procedures, the configuration of BVAS machines, and compliance with statutory obligations such as inviting political parties to inspect election materials pursuant to Section 42 of the Electoral Act 2026.
“The Commission therefore considers it imperative that all electoral activities be harmonised within a coherent and workable framework that promotes certainty, transparency, administrative efficiency and equal treatment of all political parties,” he said.
He assured that notwithstanding the pending appeals, the Commission remained firmly committed to conducting the 2027 General Election in strict compliance with the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
Turning to preparations for the Ekiti State Governorship Election scheduled for Saturday, 20 June 2026, the Chairman said the Commission’s Register of Voters for the election contained 1,059,360 registered voters, reflecting the addition of 66,664 new registrants from the Continuous Voter Registration exercise to the 2023 base register of 987,647.
He said 2,103 double registrations had been invalidated to protect the integrity of the register.
Amupitan said logistics arrangements, technology deployment and the training of election officials were all proceeding according to schedule, reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to the simultaneous opening of all 2,445 Polling Units across the 16 Local Government Areas of Ekiti State at 8:30 a.m. on Election Day.
