ADC Says Revised Timetable Designed To Favour APC

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has rejected the updated 2026–2027 electoral timetable released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), alleging that the new schedule and its accompanying legal requirements were intentionally crafted to give undue advantage to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the 2027 general elections.

In a statement signed by its national publicity secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi yesterday, the party accused the electoral body of embedding “boobytraps” in the compliance conditions mandated by the Electoral Act 2026,boobytraps which, it argued, would make it nearly impossible for opposition parties to fully participate in the 2027 polls.

At the centre of the ADC’s protest is INEC’s requirement, pursuant to Sections 77 and 82 of the Electoral Act 2026, that all political parties submit a comprehensive digital membership register by April 2, 2026, barely 34 days away.

Party primaries are scheduled to be held between April 23 and May 30, 2026.

Under Section 77(7), any party that fails to meet the April 2 deadline automatically becomes ineligible to field candidates.

The ADC insists this requirement creates an impossible race against time for most opposition parties, noting that the digital register must include each member’s name, sex, date of birth, address, state, local government, ward, polling unit, photograph, and National Identification Number (NIN).

According to the party, Section 77(6) also invalidates any previously existing membership register unless it contains all of these updated data fields, effectively forcing parties to begin afresh.

The ADC alleges that the APC began compiling its digital membership database in February 2025, a full year before it became a legal requirement, an outcome the party attributes not to foresight, but insider knowledge.

“They had one whole year to carry out an exercise that they now expect other political parties to complete in one month,” the statement said. “This is more or less a practical impossibility.”

The party said the combination of tight deadlines, heavy data collection requirements, and the threat of total exclusion suggests a deliberate attempt to shrink the democratic space and ease the path for President Bola Tinubu to return to office “without meaningful contest.”

“The so-called timetable is not an administrative document. It is a political instrument crafted to predetermine the 2027 outcome,” the ADC declared.

“A system where one party takes advantage of incumbency to give itself a one-year head-start on requirements that others are only learning about when the deadline is near is a rigged and corrupt system.”

The ADC added that the Electoral Act 2026 itself is “corrupted” and appears designed to exclude opposition voices entirely.

The party confirmed that it has joined other opposition parties in rejecting both the Electoral Act 2026 and the INEC timetable, insisting that neither document can stand if Nigeria’s democracy is to remain credible.

“Let it be clear: ADC will not do anything that will appear to confer legitimacy on a fraudulent system. We are reviewing our options and will announce our next steps soon.”

The statement ended with a call on civil society organisations, democratic institutions, and Nigerian citizens across party lines to scrutinize the new timetable and resist attempts to manipulate the 2027 elections.

“No democracy can endure if the rules that govern it are written to suit predetermined outcomes,” the ADC warned.