The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that the ballot for the bye-election across the 12 states have been adjusted to include the logo of Social Democratic Party (SDP) as ordered by the Federal High Court, Abuja.
Aside from that, the commission disclosed that the names of the candidates submitted by the party ahead of the poll have also been included as mandated by the court.
INEC, however, argued that the order will be appealed after the poll considering that the SDP never organised any primary monitored by its officials across the affected constituencies in the country.
In a statement released on Friday by the National Commissioner and Chairman,
Information & Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun, the electoral umpire assured other political parties that the rulings will not affect the conducts of the exercise schedule for Saturday.
According to the statement, INEC said: “The Commission has been served with the judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, in Suit No. FHC/ABJ/CS/1525/2025. In the judgement, the Commission was ordered to include the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and its candidates in the bye-elections in 12 States of the Federation.
“The party did not earlier submit a valid notice for the conduct of primaries for the bye-elections. For this reason, they were not monitored by the Commission.
“However, in compliance with the judgement, the names of the candidates submitted manually have been accepted and published on our website. The party will participate in the bye-elections.
“The Commission wishes to assure the public, especially voters in the 12 States, that the 11th-hour judgement will not affect the election which will proceed tomorrow Saturday 16th August 2025 as scheduled.
“Meanwhile, the Commission will exercise its legitimate right of appeal under the law”.
