Political parties are experiencing mixed results as they race to upload their candidates on the Independent National Electoral Commission's portal ahead of the July 11 deadline.
The ruling All Progressives Congress, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the African Democratic Congress confirmed they've successfully uploaded their nominees, but several other parties face significant hurdles.
Beyond portal troubles, many parties haven't finished selecting running mates for their governorship candidates and are still grappling with fallout from their primaries.
The Because Of Our Tomorrow Party's national chairman, Sonny Adenuga, told journalists the party encountered difficulties using INEC's portal to upload its 2027 general election candidates after receiving its code last week.
"We are complying as usual. We will upload all our candidates before the deadline," Adenuga said, though he expressed frustration with the technical problems the party was experiencing.
When asked whether he'd notified INEC about the challenges, Adenuga confirmed he had.
The Labour Party, however, reported smooth sailing with the upload process. National Publicity Secretary Ken Asogwa confirmed to journalists in Abuja that the party encountered only initial technical glitches, which it has since resolved.
Asogwa explained that while INEC's automated system initially created hiccups, the issue stemmed from minor data mismatches. "We started uploading last week.
It has been seamless," he said.
He outlined the technical problem: "The system sometimes rejects particulars if they do not match what it has. If, for instance, a candidate's surname appears first on their list and we try to load using the same candidate's first name first, the system may reject it."
Asogwa added that reversing the name order resolved the issue. "However, when this is reversed, the process is seamless," he noted.
The Labour Party official emphasised that apart from these technical adjustments, which have been addressed, the party encountered no other obstacles while uploading candidate details.
The All Progressives Grand Alliance declined to comment when asked about its progress with the upload exercise and INEC's deadline.
INEC opened its Candidate Nomination Portal for political parties to submit Form EC9 and supporting documents for presidential, governorship, National Assembly and state assembly candidates.
The New Nigeria Peoples Party acknowledged it's navigating internal complications. A party official disclosed that the party is managing problems within its own ranks as it works toward the submission deadline.
The African Democratic Congress, through Bolaji Abdullahi, indicated the party is making steady progress toward completing the exercise.
The electoral commission has maintained firm resolve on the July 11 deadline, giving parties limited time to resolve outstanding issues and ensure all candidates are properly registered in the system.
