By Ayo Ayodele
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has begun a comprehensive review of its Regulations and Guidelines for Political Parties as part of efforts to strengthen internal party democracy and enforce stricter compliance standards ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The three-day Technical Review Workshop, which commenced on Wednesday in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, is being held with the support of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD). The exercise follows the recent enactment of the Electoral Act 2026 and the release of the Commission’s revised timetable and schedule of activities for the 2027 polls.
Opening the workshop, INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, described the review as a critical institutional realignment aimed at harmonising the Commission’s regulatory framework with the provisions of the new law.
“We meet at a watershed moment in our democratic journey,” he said, noting that the Electoral Act 2026 has recalibrated statutory timelines and compressed the operational window for electoral activities.
Under the revised timetable, Presidential and National Assembly elections will be held on January 16, 2027, while Governorship and State Assembly elections are scheduled for February 6, 2027.
Amupitan stressed that the review is not a routine administrative update but a deliberate effort to sanitise party operations and entrench higher standards of accountability.
“We are not just editing a document. We are aligning our Regulations and Guidelines with the 2026 Act to ensure that our electoral architecture is not only robust in theory but strong in practice,” he said.
The conduct of party primaries emerged as a major focus of the reforms. Primaries are scheduled to hold between April 23 and May 30, 2026. The INEC chairman warned that opaque nomination processes could erode public confidence and trigger voter apathy as well as pre-election litigation.
“The quality of internal party democracy has a direct bearing on the election conducted by INEC. If candidates emerge through opaque processes, we face voter apathy and an explosion of pre-election litigation,” he cautioned.
He also expressed concern over recurring intra-party disputes that frequently end up in court, often with INEC joined as a party. According to him, time spent defending avoidable disputes detracts from the Commission’s core responsibility of election planning.
Amupitan said the revised 2026 Guidelines would introduce stricter benchmarks for membership documentation, financial transparency, and the inclusion of women, youth and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). He cited Sections 83(5) and (6) of the Electoral Act 2026, which remove the jurisdiction of courts over internal party affairs, reinforcing the principle of party autonomy.
Anchoring INEC’s regulatory authority on Section 160 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Section 151 of the Electoral Act 2026, the chairman assured stakeholders that the Commission would remain neutral, transparent and guided strictly by law.
“The sovereign will of the Nigerian people must remain sacrosanct from the point of candidate nomination to the final declaration of results,” he added.
Also speaking, National Commissioner and Chairman of the Election and Party Monitoring Committee, Dr. Baba Bila, described the review as timely and strategic, noting that it is the first comprehensive regulatory overhaul since the passage of the Electoral Act 2026.
He said the 2022 Regulations and Guidelines, which cover party registration and de-registration, party operations, conduct of primaries, campaigns and campaign finance reporting, require structural refinement and substantive amendments to align with the new legal framework.
Country Director of WFD Nigeria, Mr. Adebowale Olorunmola, reaffirmed the organisation’s technical partnership with INEC, stating that improved regulations would help give full effect to the provisions of the Electoral Act 2026 and encourage political parties to become more inclusive and internally democratic.
INEC said the outcome of the review would produce a clearer and more coherent regulatory framework to guide political parties and safeguard the integrity of the 2027 General Election.