The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC has fixed August 16th 2025 for the conduct of by-elections in 16 constituencies across 12 states in Nigeria.
The by-elections cut across 3.5 million registered voters spread across 32 local government areas, 356 wards, and 6,987 polling units.
During the second Consultative Meeting with political party leaders in Abuja, INEC Chairman Professor Mahmud Yakubu announced the election schedule.
He said the outstanding by-elections involve two senatorial districts which includes, Anambra South and Edo Central, with five federal constituencies, Ovia South East, Ovia South West in Edo state, Babur/ Garki in Jugaawa State, Chukun/Kajuru in Kaduna state, Ikene, Shagamu, Remo in Ogun state and Ibadan North in Oyo state.
Also involved are nine State Assembly constituencies, Ganye in Adamawa State, Onisha One in Anambra state, Dekina/Okura in Kogi state, Zaria Kiyawa and Basawa in Kaduna state, Bagwai Shanono in Kano State, Mariga in Niger state, Karimlamio One in Taraba state and Kauran Namoda South in Zamfara state.
Party Primaries
“Party primaries will be hold between 17th and 21st July 2025 while the online portal for nomination forms will open at 9am on 22nd July and close at 6pm on 26th July 2025. Campaign in public will commence on 2nd August and end at midnight on 14th August 2025 that is 24 hours prior to election day.
“The Commission has already published the final list of 16 candidates and their running mates”, Professor Yakubu said with the commencement of campaigns for the Anambra State off-cycle governorship election, as well as the conduct of party primaries for the area council elections in the federal capital territory.
” I urge you to adhere strictly to the procedure and timelines for the conduct of your nominations, particularly the legal requirements for the Commission to publish the personal particulars of candidates in the various constituencies for claims and objections by citizens, which comes within a week from the deadline for the submission of nominations,” he said.
The Chairman also drew the attention of political parties to the perennial complaint especially, by opposition parties about the denial of access to public facilities for electioneering activities.
He said, “Going forward the commission will work with the inter-party advisory council IPAC and intensify our collaboration with the advertising regulatory (4:08) council of Nigeria ACOM for a possible legal action in the face of prima facie evidence (4:15) of the violation of the law.”
CVR
Professor Mahmoud said for the nationwide continuous voter registration, the commission has approved the resumption of the online and in-person registration of voters in all the states of the federation.
He stated that the online pre-registration would start on the 18th of august 2025 while the in-person registration would follow on 25th august 2025.
He said in view of the forthcoming governorship election, the voter registration exercise in Anambra state would commence in the 326 wards across the state on 8th July 2025 and end on the 17th July 2025 .
The INEC Chairman added that the exercise would be held simultaneously in all the 37 state and fct offices as well as all 774 local government offices nationwide.
In his remark, the Chairman Inter-party Advisory Council, Dr Yusuf Dantalle laments poor turn-out of voters during elections which indicating lack of trust in credible democracy.
“We must continue to work on rebuilding trust in the electoral governance, elections are prerequisite of democracy. In fact, it is the beauty of democracy.
“We must uphold the sanctity of the ballot box and respect the will of the people as expressed therein, Elected public officers must be hold accountable at all levels of governance. This is one of the salient ways to protect and sustain our hard-earned democracy,” Dantalle emphasised.
Confidence Okwuchi