A legal practitioner, Mr. P. D. Pius, has argued in an election law bulletin that the party membership register will be the most sought-after document of the 2027 election cycle, and that a person whose name was not in the register submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission cannot be a valid candidate.
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He advanced three reasons, of which he set out two, promising the third in a later edition.
“The Supreme Court in the case of INEC vs ZLP has decided that any political party that did not submit their party membership register to INEC should not be allowed to participate in 2027 elections,” he wrote.
“The decision of the Supreme Court means that INEC has power to remove the names of candidates whose party did not submit register of members. Where INEC fails to act, you can go to Court and mandamus them to remove such candidates from the list of cleared candidates.”
“The second point is that political parties themselves cannot nominate a candidate whose name is not in the party register that has been submitted to INEC,” he wrote.
“Remember that one of the argument in INEC vs ZLP case was that activity 2 on INEC Timetable which mandate political parties to submit membership register before 30th April 2026 is invalid. Ruling on the issue, the supreme court held that it is valid and nothing is wrong with it. 30th April 2026 is the deadline.”
“30th April 2026 therefore remains sacrosanct. If your name is not in party membership register submitted to INEC by 30th April 2026, you cannot be a valid candidate.”
He referred in passing to two politicians whose positions have been the subject of public argument, before moving on.
“This is why the Federal High Court nullified the nomination of Hon. Ali Isa J.C the APC candidate of Balanga/Billiri Constituency and asked the APC to conduct another primaries and present another candidate but not Ali whose name is not in the register,” he wrote. “This was the decision in FHC/GM/CS/4/2026.”
He said he would return to the third and, in his view, most important point about the register in a later edition.
The bulletin closes with a note about a forthcoming series of training sessions for party agents on election law.
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