The All Progressives Congress (APC) has said it is on course to meet the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) deadline of July 11 for the submission of its presidential and National Assembly candidates for the 2027 general elections.
According to a senior member of the party’s National Working Committee, who pleaded anonymity, the uploading of candidates’ details had gotten to an advanced stage.
The source disclosed that details of President Bola Tinubu and his running mate were expected to be uploaded to the INEC portal by the middle of the week.
“We are uploading the details of our National Assembly candidates smoothly,” the source told The Nation.
“We expect that on or before next Wednesday, we shall upload the particulars of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his running mate. We are fully confident of meeting the July 11 deadline for uploading all our candidates on the INEC portal.”
Checks at the APC’s Information and Communications Technology department at the Muhammadu Buhari House national secretariat in Abuja on Sunday indicated that the party’s technical team had been interacting with the INEC portal without interruption.
The details of most principal officers of the 10th National Assembly and some serving lawmakers have already been uploaded, sources in the department said.
They added that the details of four serving governors – AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, Kwara State; Mai Mala Buni, Yobe State; Hope Uzodimma, Imo State and Dapo Abiodun, Ogun State – had also been uploaded to the electoral commission’s portal.
The governors are among the prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) that selected the party’s senatorial tickets ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The race to beat the INEC deadline followed a review of the APC’s primary elections after hundreds of petitions were filed by aggrieved aspirants.
The party recently submitted a revised list of candidates to the INEC after its NWC had dropped six senatorial and 19 House of Representatives candidates who had earlier emerged from the May primaries.
The changes touched constituencies in Abia, Kogi, Taraba, Benue, Ebonyi, Ondo, Kaduna, Niger and Kwara states.
The substitutions came on the back of recommendations by the party’s Primary Election Appeal Committee.
A letter conveying the revised list was sent to INEC and signed by the APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, and the National Secretary, Ajibola Basiru.
The APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, said the ruling party received more than 700 petitions from aggrieved members after the conclusion of its primaries.
After their shadow elections, the party got over 700 petitions from aggrieved members, Morka said.
The party’s leadership then studied the recommendations that had come from the petitions, leading to some constituency changes while candidates who successfully defended their victories through the appeal process kept their tickets.
Morka refused to say when the APC’s final list of candidates would be published.
“The party’s immediate priority is to ensure that all approved candidates complete and return their INEC Form EC9 nomination documents before the deadline,” he said.
“Our immediate absolute priority now is to ensure that our designated candidates properly complete and return their Form EC9 nomination documents for uploading before the INEC deadline rather than releasing the list to the public,” he said.
While there were some changes that resulted from the appeal process, many of the major APC figures kept their tickets, including sitting governors, who want to go to the Senate in 2027.
