*Release Access Codes To Parties June 26
THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had lamented that it was yet to receive budgetary allocations for the conduct of next year’s general elections.
This is even as it was scheduled to release access codes to registered political parties on Friday, June 26, to enable them upload the details of the elections candidates on its nomination portal.
INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this on Thursday, June 25, in Abuja, while speaking at a cross-sectorial interactive session organised by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA), in partnership with Legis360, said although the Commission was still awaiting the release of the funds, preparations for the conduct of successful elections were ongoing.
Recall that INEC had proposed a budget of N873.78billion for the general elections, with substantial allocations dedicated to election operations, technology and capital expenditure.
Haruna explained that the development was still within the time limit, as per the Electoral Act, 2026, which provides that election funds due to the Commission for any general election shall be released “not later than six months before the next general election.”
He, however, said INEC was already making arrangements for the procurement of new election materials, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other machines that were damaged, lost or unrecovered during previous elections, adding: “Our director of ICT just returned from China, regarding procurement, because not all the BVAS devices used during the last general elections were recovered.
“Orders need to be placed, and these things take time.”
The INEC commissioner also disclosed that the electoral body was planning to conduct mock presidential election exercises to test-run its technology deployment as part of efforts to avoid a repeat of the technical glitches that affected the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal during the 2023 presidential election.
On concerns over the high cost of conducting elections in Nigeria, Haruna advised citizens to look beyond the total figure and consider the realities of election administration, as the cost of elections in Nigeria remained relatively low, when compared to other nations.
According to him: “This N800billion plus sounds humongous, but when you calculate the average cost per voter, it is about six dollars, which is reasonable for a country, such as Nigeria.
“People forget that virtually everything we use is imported. The BVAS devices and a lot of other election materials are imported. Exchange rate fluctuations also affect these costs.”
He acknowledged the challenges posed to INEC by conflicting court judgments and orders, citing
how last-minute court orders, received between 24 and 48 hours before the Ekiti governorship election, disrupted administrative workflows and production of election result sheets.
He stated: “When a court gives a last-minute injunction to include parties, like the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and African Democratic Congress (ADC), we are forced to reconfigure the software and update physical materials instantly.
“This leaves very little room to test the systems extensively, though we still manage to achieve substantial compliance with the rules.”
He, however, assured that the Commission was taking steps to engage relevant judicial authorities on the issue, as had been done before now.
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The matter, he added, had been reported to the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), while awaiting the outcome of Police and Department of State Services (DSS) investigations to determine the next action.
Executive Director of PAACA, Ezenwa Nwagwu, urged the Federal Government and key political stakeholders to ensure early release of funds to INEC, warning that delaying election funds forces a dangerous, emergency “fire brigade” approach to national planning.
According to him: “Whenever you create an emergency situation, corruption is very close behind. When things are not done when they should be done, people resort to bypassing rules.
“That is a situation politicians like to exploit to diminish the credibility of the process.”
He stated that early financial disbursements were critical, because INEC faced tight international procurement timelines, as it urgently needed to replace essential hardware, including damaged BVAS and other devices.
By INEC’s schedule, access code collection begins starts on June 26 at INEC HQ in Abuja for the nomination portal, while the portal opens for Presidential and National Assembly filings and parties upload of Forms EC9 and EC9A-E online on Saturday, June 27 to Saturday, July 11.
Between Saturday, July 18, and Saturday, August 8, the portal opens for Governorship and State Assembly for parties to upload candidate details, while on Monday, August 15, INEC releases the final list of Presidential and NASS candidates.
