INEC: FCT Council Poll as Litmus Test for 2027

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council poll held last Saturday appeared to have been a good litmus test for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) ahead of the 2027 general election. Adedayo Akinwale reports.

The  Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Elections held last Saturday have come and gone, while the outcome of the election has shown that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) wasn’t fooling around.

For the first time in a long time, the Area Council poll became a point of attraction. Many had thought that the African Democratic Congress (ADC) and other opposition parties would have used the election to make a statement that they are indeed ready to wrestle power from the ruling party ahead of the 2027 general election.

However, out of the six Area Councils, the ruling party won the Abuja Municipal, Kuje, Abaji, Kwali, Bwari, while the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) emerged from the shadow of death to claim Gwagwalada.

The outcome of the election was a clear indication that the opposition parties are yet to wake up from their slumber.

The election also was the first to be conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) following the signing of 2026 Electoral Act by President Bola Tinubu.

To many, the 2026 Electoral Act was a litmus test for INEC ahead of next year’s general election. Prior to last Saturday’s election, the electoral body at a meeting with Transport Union Leaders told the whole world that it would hire a total of 1,132 vehicles to ensure seamless movement of logistics and personnel of the commission.

The commission also told the union that it wouldn’t entertain any excuses from the transport unions, insisting that the services they would render must be in tandem with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) they signed with INEC.

On the election day, while there were early arrivals of INEC Officials and materials in some locations, the same could not be said of others. At a point, INEC personnel had to resort to taking tricycles to be able to meet up. The commission had targeted 8:00am for the commencement of voting, that could not be because of the logistics arrangement. On the average, voting started at about 9:30 am on the day of the election.

According to the Commission’s Election Operations Dashboard, 45 per cent of polling units opened for voting as at 8:30am, while all polling units were confirmed open by 10:00am on Election Day.

The Commission pointed out that as at 2:00pm on Sunday, 22nd February 2026, the upload of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) Portal had reached 93 per cent.

Despite the passage of a new law which now mandates electronic transmission of results under Section 60 (3) of the Electoral Act, mutilated election results found their way to the INEC Results Viewing Portal (IREV).

Political analysts are of the view that the electoral umpire should be empowered to reject any mutilated results uploaded to the IReV and declared null and could while the Electoral Officer be made to face the full wrath of the law.

In addition, while all results from five Area Councils were declared early, results of Kuje Area Council were delayed. The commission blamed the delay on difficult terrain of Kabi ward, which delayed the final collation of the Area Council results.

The commission recalled that the results were announced late Saturday except that of Kuje Area Council which was announced at 3:30pm on Sunday, 22nd February 2026.

With the commission expected to announce a new time table and notice of election for the 2027 elections, the electoral umpire has a long way to go as preparations for the election are concerned.

Though, no glitch was recorded during the Area council poll, analysts say if INEC could experience not too smooth logistics and delay in announcement of one Area council election results, what happens when the commission has to deal with 774 local governments.