Nigeria’s electoral commission is defending its impartiality two months before the Nigeria election on 16 January, as protesters call for its chairman to resign and a court ruling against opposition candidate Atiku Abubakar heads to appeal.
The stakes are high for Africa’s most populous country: the vote will decide whether President Bola Tinubu wins a second term, and trust in the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was damaged by disputes over the 2023 count.
Why is INEC under pressure before the Nigeria election?
INEC chairman Joash Amupitan has defended the commission’s neutrality while acknowledging that failures in the electronic transmission of results in 2023 deeply damaged voters’ trust, RFI reported (in French) on Sunday. The broadcaster said 54 electoral officials face disciplinary proceedings.
On 9 November Amupitan said INEC had removed 1,608,660 invalid entries after reviewing the 2025-26 continuous voter registration, Tribune reported. RFI said the removals had heightened suspicions about the register’s integrity.
In London, protesters blocked Amupitan’s car outside Chatham House and demanded his resignation, alleging duplicate registrations and favouritism towards the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Vanguard reported. Amupitan asked Nigerians to trust the commission to deliver a free and credible vote. INEC has also dismissed as false a report that he planned to resign, according to NaijaNews.
The last Nigeria election, in February 2023, was won by Tinubu with about 37% of the vote, ahead of Atiku and Peter Obi. Both challengers contested the result in court, and the Supreme Court upheld Tinubu’s victory in October 2023. That dispute centred on INEC’s failure to upload polling-unit results in real time, the failure Amupitan has acknowledged, and which INEC plans to test again before the 2027 Nigeria election.
What did the court rule on Atiku’s candidacy?
On 5 November Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court in Abuja set aside the caretaker leadership of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) led by David Mark, and the decisions taken under it, including the primary that nominated Atiku, Reuters reported.
The ADC filed an appeal and asked for the ruling to be suspended, The Sun reported. The party argues that an earlier judgment of the same court, by Justice Musa Liman, upheld the Mark leadership. Atiku, a former vice-president, has said nothing will keep him off the ballot, ThisDay reported.
Kola Ologbondiyan, an ADC spokesman, accused the APC of working towards a coronation rather than an election, Channels Television reported. We did not find an APC response to that claim. INEC has said it will act on the case only after the appeal court or the Supreme Court has ruled.
What happens next in the Nigeria election timetable?
INEC plans a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise on 28 November to test upgraded voter devices and the electronic transmission of results, NaijaNews reported. The House of Representatives summoned Amupitan in late October to brief lawmakers on voter registration, card distribution, funding and security.
The Court of Appeal has not yet fixed a date to hear the ADC case. The commission publishes its timetable and candidate lists on the INEC website. Other recent DNE Africa coverage of the campaign includes the attack on a Peter Obi town hall in Lagos.
FAQ
When is the Nigeria election?
The general elections, including the presidential vote, are scheduled for 16 January 2027.
Is Atiku Abubakar still a candidate in the Nigeria election?
A Federal High Court ruling voided his nomination on 5 November, but the ADC has appealed. INEC says it will follow the final court decision.
How many names did INEC remove from the voter register?
INEC said it removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations after reviewing the 2025-26 registration exercise.
Who chairs INEC?
Joash Amupitan is the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission.
