The dispute over whether INEC issued access codes to political parties is beginning to resolve itself — and the numbers tell a clear story.
The Independent National Electoral Commission confirmed on Tuesday, July 1, 2026, that nine registered political parties had collected their access codes for the 2027 presidential and National Assembly elections as of the close of business on Monday, June 30.
The disclosure came from INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Mallam Mohammed Haruna, during a briefing with reporters in Abuja.
The nine parties are: Accord (A), Action Alliance (AA), African Democratic Congress (ADC), All Progressives Congress (APC), Labour Party (LP), National Democratic Congress (NDC), National Democratic Party (NDP), Peoples Redemption Party (PRP), and Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The confirmation matters because it cuts through the weekend dispute in which most parties said they had not received codes while INEC insisted they had already been made available.
What Monday’s figures show is that parties who attended the commission’s training sessions on Thursday and Friday, June 26 and 27, and who sent authorised representatives to collect the codes, were able to do so — while others had not yet done so by close of business.
Haruna was direct about how the process works.
“As of close of work on Monday, nine politicians have collected the access code for the national elections,” he said, using the shorthand for party representatives.
He explained that the onus rests entirely with the parties, not the commission.
Collecting an access code requires a party to send a representative to INEC’s offices with a valid authorisation letter from the party’s leadership. INEC does not deliver the codes to party secretariats.
INEC Warns Parties Not to Wait Until the Last Minute
With nine parties confirmed as having collected codes, the remaining registered parties — including some that loudly insisted last weekend they had received nothing — must now take that step themselves before the July 11 deadline.
Political parties have until 6:00pm on Friday, July 11, 2026, to upload nominations for presidential and National Assembly candidates, covering Forms EC9, EC9A, 9B, 9C, 9D, and 9E.
The window for governorship and State House of Assembly candidates opens from July 18 and runs until August 8.
Haruna said INEC had gone further than required to accommodate parties, extending the effective deadline to midnight rather than closing access at end of business on the deadline date.
He made clear, however, that the commission would not absorb responsibility for parties that delayed.
“INEC has been generous by extending the deadline from the close of work to midnight of the deadline date. If any political party decides to wait until the deadline, INEC cannot be blamed for that.”
He also reminded parties that their officials had already been trained and that the nomination guidelines were in place.
Haruna called on all parties to comply strictly with those guidelines and to avoid last-minute rushes that could result in incomplete or rejected submissions.
