Electoral Act 2026 ousts court’s jurisdiction on parties’ internal affairs Unqualified candidates seeking election risk 10-year ban •Unprepared opposition parties free to boycott 2027 polls – Basiru Courts will henceforth have no say in the internal affairs of political parties, according to provisions of the newly promulgated Electoral Act 2026. It has also set strict conditions for merger of two or more political parties. Section 83 (5) of the act stipulates that “Subject to the provision of subsection (3), no Court in Nigeria shall entertain jurisdiction over any suit or matter pertaining to the internal affairs of a political party.” It says where such action is brought in negation of this provision – (a) no interim or interlocutory injunction shall be entertained by the Court, but the Court shall suspend its ruling and deliver it at the stage of final judgment and shall give accelerated hearing to the matter. (b) the Court shall, at the conclusion of the matter, impose costs of not less than ₦10,000,000.00 on the counsel who filed the action and not less than N10,000,000.00 on the Plaintiff/Applicant and in addition to payment to the Commission of any cost, including solicitors’ fees incurred by it where joined as a party. Subsection 3 says: “The Commission may direct its enquiry under subsection (2) to the Chairman or Secretary of the political party at the national, state, local government or area council or ward level, as the case may be.” Under 81 (1) any two or more registered political parties wishing to merge are required to lodge a formal request with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and each of the parties involved shall give the commission a nine months’ notice of its intention to do so before a general election. The written request for merger shall be sent to the Chairman of the Commission and shall be signed jointly by the National Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer for the time being of the different political parties proposing the merger and shall be accompanied by — (a) a special resolution passed by the national convention of each of the political parties proposing to merge, approving the merger; (b) the proposed full name and acronym, constitution, manifesto, symbol or logo of the party together with the addresses of the national office of the party resulting from the merger; and (c) evidence of payment of administrative fee as may be fixed by the Commission. (4) On receipt of the request for merger of political parties the Commission shall consider the request, and if the parties have fulfilled the requirements of the Constitution and this Act, approve the proposed merger and communicate its decision to the parties concerned before the expiration of 60 days from the date of receipt of the formal request: Provided that where the Commission fails to communicate its decision within 60 days, the parties shall within 14 days thereafter challenge the decision of the Commission at the court and establish by cogent and verifiable reason that they have met all the constitutional requirements for merger. Besides, any political party presenting a candidate for an election without due diligence will be barred from the election. The Act provides a fine of N5 million for the offence of vote selling or vote buying or imprisonment for a term of not less than two years or both, while such persons shall not be eligible to stand for election in a period of at least 10 years. Under the law, members of any political party who accept appointment into INEC will be deemed to have committed an offence and will be liable to a fine of N5 million. Similarly, where a candidate who participated in party primaries but felt cheated approaches the court, the court cannot declare him the winner of an election that has been concluded. The court can only order a fresh election with the winning party excluded. Section 29(6) states that “Where the Court determines that any of the information contained in the affidavit is false only as it relates to constitutional requirements of eligibility, the Court shall issue an order disqualifying the candidate and the sponsoring political party. (7) Notwithstanding the provisions of sub section (6), where the election has been held, the court shall direct the Commission to conduct a rerun among the candidates that contested the subject election except the candidate and the party so disqualified”. Section 8(5) of the law makes it punishable for anybody who is a member of a political party to be appointed into any position within INEC, saying “Any person who, being a member of a political party, misrepresents himself by not disclosing his membership, affiliation, or connection to any political party in order to secure an appointment with the Commission in any capacity, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of ₦5,000,000 or imprisonment for a term not more than two years or both. For the offence of vote buying and selling voters cards, section 22 of the law states that “Any person who — (a) is in unlawful possession of any voter’s card whether issued in the name of any voter or not, (b) sells or attempts to sell or offers to sell any voter’s card whether issued in the name of any voter or not, or (c) buys or offers to buy, sells or offers to sell votes whether on his own behalf or on behalf of any other person, commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N 5,000,000 or imprisonment to a term of not less than two years or both, and shall not be eligible to stand for election in Nigeria for a period of at least 10 years”. Section 29 of the Act provides a window of 120 days for political parties to submit to INEC the list of candidates it intends to sponsor alongside an affidavit, adding, however, that such candidates must have emerged from a valid primary conducted by the parties. The law states further that “the list or information submitted by each candidate shall be accompanied by an affidavit sworn to by the candidate at the Federal High Court, High Court of a State, or Federal Capital Territory, indicating that he or she has fulfilled all the constitutional requirements for election into that office. Section 29 (5) also provides that “An aspirant who participated in the primaries of his political party who has reasonable grounds to believe that any information given by the political party’s candidate in the affidavit or any document submitted by that candidate in relation to his constitutional requirements to contest the election is false, may file a suit at the Federal High Court in the Federal Capital Territory or in the jurisdiction the cause of action arose against that candidate seeking a declaration that the information contained in the affidavit is false. Candidates in an election can no longer withdraw from election at any time, but must do so 90 days before the date of the election as provided for in section 31 which provides that “a candidate may withdraw his candidature by notice in writing signed by him together with a sworn affidavit delivered personally by the candidate to the political party that nominated him for the election and the political party shall convey such withdrawal and the sworn affidavit to the Commission not later than 90 days to the election.” It also provides in Section 35 that “where a candidate knowingly allows himself to be nominated by more than one political party or in more than one constituency, his nomination shall be void”. In an event of a boycott, section 39 of the Act provides that (1) Where after the expiration of time for delivery of nomination papers, withdrawal of candidates and the extension of time as provided for in this Bill there is only one person who is validly nominated in respect of an election, other than to the office of the President or Governor, that person shall be declared elected. (2) Where a person is declared elected under subsection (1), a Declaration of Result Form as may be prescribed by the Commission shall be completed and a copy issued to the person by the returning officer while the original of the form shall be returned to the Commission as in the case of a contested election. Section 43 forbids appointed and elected government officials from who has not resigned their position from serving as polling or collation agents for any political party. Section 60(5) provides: “The Presiding officer shall transmit the results including total number of accredited voters to the next level of collation”, while subsection (6) provides that “Presiding Officer who willfully contravenes any provision of this clause commits an offence and is liable on conviction to a fine of not less than N500,000 or imprisonment for a term of not less than six months or both.” Section 62 provides for Post-election procedure and procedures for collation of election results. It states that (1) After the recording and announcement of the result, the Presiding Officer shall deliver the same along with election materials under security and accompanied by the candidates or their polling agents, where available, to such person as may be prescribed by the Commission. (2) The Commission shall compile, maintain and update, on a continuous basis, a register of election results to be known as the National Electronic Register of Election Results which shall be a distinct database or repository of polling unit by polling unit results, including collated election results, of each election conducted by the Commission in the Federation, and the Register of Election Results shall be kept in electronic format by the Commission at its national headquarters. (3) Any person or political party may obtain from the Commission, on payment of such fees as may be determined by the Commission, a certified true copy of any election result kept in the National Electronic Register of Election Results for a State, Local Government, Area Council, registration area or Electoral Ward or Polling Unit and the certified true copy may be in printed or electronic format. (4) A collation officer or returning officer at an election shall collate and announce the result of an election, subject to his or her verification and confirmation that the — (a) number of accredited voters stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the number of accredited voters recorded under clause 47 (2) of this Bill and transmitted directly from polling units; and (b) votes stated on the collated result are correct and consistent with the votes or results recorded and transmitted directly from polling units under clause 60 (4) of this Bill. (5) Subject to subsection (1), a collation officer or returning officer shall use the number of accredited voters recorded under clause 47 (2) of this Bill and transmitted directly from polling units under clause 60 (5) of this Bill to collate and announce the result of an election if a collated result at his or a lower level of collation is correct. (6) Where during collation of results, there is a dispute regarding a collated result or the result of an election from any polling unit, the collation officer or returning officer shall use the following to determine the correctness of the disputed result — (a) the original of the disputed collated result for each polling unit where the election is disputed; (b) the Smart Card Reader or other technological device used for accreditation of voters in each polling unit where the election is disputed for the purpose of obtaining accreditation data directly from the Smart Card Reader or other technology device; (c) data of accreditation recorded under clause 47(2) and transmitted directly from each polling unit where the election is disputed as prescribed under clauses 47 (2) and 60 (5) of this Bill; and (d) the votes and result of the election recorded and transmitted directly from each polling unit where the election is disputed, as prescribed under clause 60 (5) of this Bill. (7) Where the disputed result under subsection (6) were otherwise found not to be correct, the collation officer or returning officer shall re-collate and announce a new result using the information in subsection (6) (a)-(d). (8) Where the dispute under subsection (6) arose at the level of collation and the returning officer has satisfied the provision of subsection (6) (a)-(d), the returning officer shall accordingly declare the winner of the election. (9) A returning officer or collation officer commits an offence if he intentionally collates or announces a false result and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not less than 10 years without an option of fine”.