Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission has released an updated election calendar, moving the 2027 Presidential and National Assembly elections forward to Saturday, January 16, 2027. Governorship and State Assembly elections are now scheduled for February 6, 2027.
The shift follows the enactment of the Electoral Act 2026, which replaced the 2022 law and reduced the mandatory election notice period from 360 to 300 days. The original dates of February 20 and March 6 had drawn sharp criticism from Muslim groups who argued they clashed with Ramadan, and from opposition parties who rejected the new Electoral Act as hastily passed and potentially damaging to democratic processes.
Under the revised calendar, party primaries will run from April 23 to May 30 this year, with presidential campaigns beginning August 19. INEC emphasized that its enhanced result management system now includes internal validation checks to prevent manipulation before transmission. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s leading opposition figures have launched a coordinated offensive against President Tinubu’s APC government, warning the amended Electoral Act could spark a democratic crisis ahead of the polls. Civil society organizations have also called for a nationwide simulation of electronic results transmission across all 176,000+ polling units.
