FULL LIST: INEC opens candidate upload portal to APC, NDC, PDP, ADC, others

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has provided access codes to nine political parties allowing them to upload the names of their candidates that will run in the 2027 general elections.

According to sources, the political parties that will be involved in the exercise are the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the African Democratic Congress (ADC), the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and many other political parties.

Candidates to be uploaded will be contesting for the posts of President, Senators, House of Representatives, and Governors except for Kogi and Osun States, whose elections are conducted out-of-cycle.

A source within INEC who prefers to remain anonymous, revealed on Monday that NDC is one of the parties to be given access codes to INEC’s candidate nomination portal, adding that claims that the NDC was denied its access codes were wrong.

“It is misinformation to suggest that the NDC was denied access code to upload its candidates to the INEC portal,” the official said.

“The commission has no reason whatsoever to deny any registered political party access to the platform. I can confirm on good authority that the NDC was among the parties that received their access codes to upload the names of their candidates.”

The clarification follows claims by officials of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, which is currently challenging a court ruling seeking its deregistration.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Osa Director, had earlier alleged that the NDC approached INEC for the access code but was informed that the commission would respond later.

“We approached INEC to collect the access code to upload the names of our candidates to the INEC portal. They told us that they would get back to us,” he had said, insisting that any delay should not be blamed on the party.

Nonetheless, the INEC official stated that the commission had been treating all qualified political parties equally and in an open manner, noting that more parties would be getting their access codes before the end of business day on Monday.

According to the official, the number of political parties allowed access could rise from nine to 13.

It should also be noted that the commission encouraged Nigerians to ignore rumors that had been floating around about how any registered political party would not be allowed access to the candidate nomination portal.