A Federal High Court in Abuja has dismissed a suit by the National Democratic Congress seeking to cancel parts of the Electoral Act 2026 that deal with who can run for office and how parties choose their candidates.
Delivering judgement on Tuesday, Justice Muhammed Umar ruled that Section 138 of the Act does not clash with the 1999 Constitution. The section removes a candidate’s qualification as a ground to challenge an election result after voting has taken place.
According to The Cable, the judge said the law does not take away constitutional requirements. It only sets out when and how such questions should be raised. “The provision of Section 138 of the Electoral Act 2026 complements the provision of the Constitution but is not in conflict with it. The contention of the plaintiff that Section 138 is inconsistent with the Constitution is of no merit,” he stated.
The NDC had asked the court to void two provisions. The first was Section 138. The second was Section 77(5), which limits voting at party primaries, congresses and conventions to members whose names were submitted to INEC at least 21 days before the exercise.
On Section 77(5), Justice Umar said the matter had already been settled. He pointed to a Court of Appeal decision on July 16 which struck down Sections 77(5), (6), (7) and Section 84(2) of the 2026 Act. That appeal was filed by the Zenith Party. The appellate court held that those clauses conflicted with Sections 221 and 222 of the Constitution, which allow political parties to decide who they field for elections. Because of that ruling, the judge said the position of the Court of Appeal remains binding.
The court also threw out the case on a technical ground. The Clerk of the National Assembly had argued that the NDC failed to serve the required pre-action notice before filing. Justice Umar agreed with the objection and said the failure made the suit incompetent.
He added that attaching INEC’s election timetable to the case did not make it a pre-election matter under Section 285 of the Constitution. “The fact that the defendant’s timetable is attached cannot make the case fall within the contemplation of Section 285,” he said.
Listed as defendants in the suit were the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Clerk of the National Assembly, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, and INEC. The NDC had asked the court to declare that issues around candidate qualification could still be raised after elections.
With the dismissal, Section 138 of the Electoral Act 2026 remains valid, while Section 77(5) and the related provisions have already been nullified by the Court of Appeal.