Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has intensified its dispute with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the nomination of candidates for the 2027 Anambra State House of Assembly election, insisting that the electoral body must explain how it obtained Form EC9E for 10 candidates the party said it never submitted.
The party, in a statement signed by its Director of New Media and Strategic Communication, Agada Theophilus, maintained that it neither collected nor submitted the EC9E forms of the candidates published by INEC.
According to the NDC, the commission owes Nigerians an explanation regarding the source of the documents used in publishing the names of the affected candidates.
“The Nigeria Democratic Congress did not submit the EC9E forms of the 10 published Anambra candidates to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. The Commission should explain to the general public how it obtained the EC9E forms for these 10 candidates when the party did not submit any of them in the first place,” the statement read.
The party argued that the nomination procedure is straightforward and places the responsibility solely on political parties.
“The process is simple: the party submits, and INEC approves,” it stated.
The NDC further explained that while it uploaded the names of 10 candidates who emerged from its appeal process through INEC’s nomination portal, the commission allegedly rejected those candidates.
It questioned how the names eventually published by INEC were accompanied by completed EC9E forms despite its insistence that it never submitted such documents.
“The party submitted the names of the 10 candidates from the appeal process on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC portal, but the Commission rejected those approved candidates. Since the NDC neither collected nor submitted the completed EC9E forms of the 10 Anambra candidates published by INEC, how did the Commission obtain their credentials when it is the party’s legal duty to submit the names of its approved candidates?” the party asked.
The NDC also called on the electoral commission to carry out what it described as an electronic audit of its nomination portal.
“We call on the Independent National Electoral Commission to conduct an electronic audit trail to determine how these 10 candidates were smuggled into its portal through the backend,” the statement added.