The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has cleared only two political associations, the African Alliance Party (AAP) and the Democratic Leadership Alliance (DLA), to proceed to the final stage of political party registration, sources told TheCable.
In June 2025, INEC announced it had received 110 letters of intent from associations seeking political party status. By early September 2025, that number had risen to 171 after additional submissions.
On September 11, INEC granted provisional approval to 14 associations out of the 171 seeking registration. These included the African Transformation Party (ATP), All Democratic Alliance (ADA), Advance Nigeria Congress (ANC), Abundance Social Party (ASP), AAP, Citizens Democratic Alliance (CDA), DLA, Grassroots Initiative Party (GRIP), Green Future Party (GFP), Liberation People’s Party (LPP), National Democratic Party (NDP), National Reform Party (NRP), Patriotic People’s Alliance (PPA), and Peoples Freedom Party (PFP).
In October, INEC shortlisted eight associations for the next phase, noting that they met constitutional and statutory requirements. These were ADA, CDA, ASP, AAP, DLA, GFP, NDP and PFP.
Sources familiar with the process told TheCable that only AAP and DLA have now been cleared to move forward, as INEC disqualified the remaining six associations for failing INEC’s final assessment.
One of the associations that failed to scale through shared a rejection letter with TheCable, in which INEC cited issues with the group’s registered address as one of the reasons for its disqualification. The letter was signed by Rose Oriaran‑Anthony, INEC’s secretary.
The affected association countered INEC’s claim, stating that it had formally notified the commission of a change of address, uploaded the new details on the INEC portal, and exchanged subsequent correspondence using the updated location.
“INEC officials also carried out physical verification at the new location without raising objections at the time,” the source told TheCable, highlighting the confusion over the disqualification.
A member of the affected group claimed that INEC denied ever receiving the address change details and documents that had previously been submitted.
“They said even all the things that our party presented, they [INEC] don’t have them,” the source said.