Civil Society Coalition Urges INEC to Relax Election Timetable

• Situation Room launches poll tracking app 

•IPAC: We want competitive poll in 2027, not coronation

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

Members of the Nigeria Civil Society Coalition have faulted the timetable approved by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of the 2027 elections as unnecessarily tight and not conducive for credible election.

The concern of the CSOs came just as the Situation  Room, yesterday, in Abuja, launched a digital platform known as Situation Room Election Accountability Tracker (SEAT) to help monitor the electoral process before, during and after the the conduct of election.

At the same time, the Inter Party Advisory Council (IPAC) has expressed worry over what it described as an emerging trend, where political parties foisted consensus arrangement on their members to avoid going into competitive primaries to select candidates for election.

Speaking at the unveiling of the app,  a leading member of the civil Society Coalition and the Executive Director of the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), Clement Nwankwo, expressed concern over the short time frame given to political parties to conclude primaries and submit names of candidates for 2027 elections.

He also deplored the new antics of most political parties to foist consensus arrangement on party members under the guise of candidate unity list.

Under the revised timetable for the 2027 elections published by INEC, the conduct of party primaries, including resolution of disputes arising from primaries, were to commence on April 23, 2026 and end yesterday, May 30, 2026.

In the schedule, political parties were also required to submit their membership register to INEC between April 1, 2026 and April 21, 2026 in line with Section 77(4) of the Electoral Act, 2026 which required registers to be submitted “not later than 21 days to the conduct of party primaries.”

However, Nwankwo said INEC’s election timetable was so compressed that political parties might find it difficult to meet the expectations for a credible party primaries.

“INEC has circumscribed this to now be May 30th and I see no reason for the rush. We’re delighted as civil society to be working with INEC and we are delighted that we have worked with INEC for so very long. Supporting it to conduct elections with integrity and that is credible,” he said.

Nwankwo said most parties in a bid to meet up with the timetable were devising ways to foist consensus or what they call unity list, adding that such measures were undemocratic.

“The beauty of democracy is that people have a choice and where parties, whether ruling or opposition, are foisting candidates for we, Nigerians, to vote for, that’s not democracy.

“Where parties are trying to emerge to run elections and they are not being allowed to emerge, that’s not democracy. Where people are struggling, today is 30th of April and INEC has foisted on us a timetable.

“I have repeatedly said it is unjustified in the light of the constitutional provision that says that elections shall be held no earlier than 150 days and no later than 30 days,” he said.

On its part, IPAC which was represented by Dipo Olayokun,said they were concerned over developments in the political space that appeared to be undermining competitiveness in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said political parties were devising means of foisting consensus candidates on their members thereby shutting out many aspirants and making the primaries less competitive.

Explaining the app, Mrs. Agianpe Onyema, said it has been made user-friendly for easy citizens’ election reporting.

She said Situation Room would use the upcoming off-circle Osun State governorship election to demonstrate the functionality of the new election accountability initiative.

According to her, the Situation Room would post regular situation analysis on the website dashboard for political parties and Nigerians to track unfolding events relating the electoral process.