A National Commissioner with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) defended its timetable, stating that the timeline provided to political parties for establishing a comprehensive digital membership is quite feasible.

The commission, on Thursday, released a revised timetable outlining timelines for party compliance, voter registration processes, and other pre-election activities.

The timetable requires political parties to submit detailed digital membership registers by April 2, 2026, which has led to objections from various political parties.

But the agency’s national commissioner, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, during an interview on Channels Television on Politics Today on Friday, dismissed claims that political parties face difficulties meeting membership requirements.

“I don’t see what the big problem or big issue with membership is. Right now, they are supposed to have had their membership sorted out.”

“Every serious party should have no problem collating its membership,” he said.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of an opposition party, the African Democratic Congress (ADC), who also appeared on the show, Bolaji Abdullahi, claimed that the amendment of the Electoral Act was a tactic by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to rig the 2027 elections.

He emphasised that his party would not permit this.

“What I can assure you is that ADC will not be used to legitimise a fraudulent process,” Bolaji said.

However, Haruna was confident that completing the registration process within the stipulated timeline should not be a challenge.

“I don’t think that it is difficult to have that registration process done by April,” he noted.

Reacting to the rejection of the timetable by the ADC, Haruna maintained that the commission is bound strictly by existing laws.

“They are entitled to their opinion. That is the law of the land. INEC doesn’t have the pleasure of rejecting any law. It is guided by what the law is,” he said.

Despite defending the timetable, the commissioner acknowledged that the schedule presents operational pressures for the commission.

“Of course, we are bothered by it. We need six months now for our money to be released, and a lot of the things we require are not off the shelf,” he said.

Haruna explained that INEC would need to procure additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines to replace lost units, as well as print ballot papers and result sheets.

While the commission previously printed much of its materials internally, he said several raw materials were sourced externally.

“INEC is getting ready, but I can’t tell you that we are ready because we have yet to get the money for the sensitive materials,” he stated.

The commissioner also revealed plans to revalidate the voter register but expressed concern over public participation in the process.

“We intend to do a revalidation of the voter register, but the main problem is we have a period of publication for objections and so on, and people never get back to us; sometimes it is a kind of self-indictment,” he said.

On whether the forthcoming election would be glitch-free, Haruna was cautious.

“I cannot tell you it will be glitch-free,” he said. (Channels TV)

Update news