By EZEKIEL OBi, Abuja-
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will include Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidates in the upcoming by-election, in line with a Federal High Court ruling in Abuja.
This is contained in a statement released on Friday by the National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun.
Mr. Olumekun confirmed that INE had received the court’s judgment in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1525/2025, filed by the SDP, which contested the exclusion of its candidates from the by-election.
He noted that the court ordered INEC to include SDP candidates in the by-elections across 12 states.
Initially, the SDP was excluded because it failed to submit a valid notice for conducting primaries, which prevented INEC from monitoring the process.
“In compliance with the court’s decision, we have accepted the manually submitted candidate names and published them on our website.
“The SDP will now participate in the by-elections,” Olumekun stated.
He assured voters in the affected states that the last-minute judgment would not disrupt the by-election, set for Saturday, August 16, as planned. However, Olumekun added that INEC intends to exercise its legal right to appeal the ruling.
The by-elections will take place in two senatorial districts (Anambra and Edo), five federal constituencies (Edo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Ogun, and Oyo), and nine state constituencies (Adamawa, Anambra, Kaduna, Kano, Kogi, Niger, Taraba, and Zamfara). Additionally, court-ordered re-run elections will occur simultaneously in Enugu South I State Constituency (Enugu) and Ghari/Tsanyawa State Constituency (Kano).
