The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received a total of 151 letters of intent from associations seeking registration as political parties, with eight new submissions recorded since late July.
According to a statement on Thursday by INEC’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, the commission has begun shortlisting associations that meet the requirements to proceed to the next stage of the application process.
“Since the 4th update released on 23rd July 2025, the commission has received eight more letters of intent from associations seeking registration as political parties. This brings the total number received so far to 151.
“Details of the latest requests, including proposed names, acronyms, logos, addresses, and interim leadership, are uploaded to our website and other online platforms for public information.
“Meanwhile, having created the portal for party registration, the commission has commenced the shortlisting of associations that meet the requirements to proceed to the application stage. Details will be released immediately after the 16 bye-elections in 12 states scheduled for Saturday, 16th August 2025,” Olumekun said.
In addition to the party registration update, INEC announced the resumption of the nationwide Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise.
The online pre-registration phase will begin on August 18, followed by in-person registration starting on August 25. Both processes will run concurrently until August 30, 2026.
Registration will take place at 811 centres nationwide, comprising 774 local government offices and 37 state and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) offices. Centres will operate from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays.
“For easy identification, the Commission is deploying an online CVR Live Locator to assist citizens in locating registration centres nationwide. The locator will go live on 17th August 2025, a day before the CVR begins, and can be accessed at https://cvr.inecnigeria.org/locator,” Olumekun stated.
INEC has also uploaded a 38-page document listing the addresses of all in-person registration centres and provided dedicated telephone helplines for each state to assist citizens.
“The procedure for both the online and in-person registrations remains the same as in 2022. Detailed information on the process, including video guides, will once again be released by the commission next week,” the statement added.