Electoral Litigation under the Electoral Act 2026: Jurisdictional Reconfiguration, Electoral Finality and Judicial Control in Nigeria
Electoral litigation occupies a central position in Nigeria’s constitutional democracy because the credibility of elections depends not only on the conduct of the electoral process but also on the availability of effective legal mechanisms for challenging unlawful electoral conduct. The Electoral Act 2026 repealed and replaced the Electoral Act 2022 and introduced significant changes affecting candidate nomination, political party regulation, electronic transmission of results, judicial review and election petitions. This article examines the implications of these changes for electoral adjudication in Nigeria. It focuses on five questions: the new jurisdictional architecture under the 2026 Act; pre-election litigation, candidate qualification and locus standi; the narrowing of post-election petition grounds under section 138; INEC’s regulatory powers and the judicial review of its decisions and guidelines; and the relationship between electoral finality, remedies and access to justice. The article adopts a doctrinal methodology based on the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, the Electoral Act 2022, the Electoral Act 2026, relevant electoral regulations and independently verified judicial decisions. Particular attention is given to the movement of provisions between the two statutes and to the constitutional supremacy principle under section 1 of the Constitution. The article argues that the 2026 Act does not merely reorganize electoral procedure. It materially redistributes the points at which electoral grievances may be judicially presented. Most significantly, qualification has been removed as an express ground of an election petition under section 138, while section 29 preserves a pre-election mechanism concerning false information in nomination documents. The article concludes that the new framework may improve electoral finality but creates significant questions concerning constitutional consistency, access to remedies, party autonomy and the appropriate limits of legislative and administrative control over political parties.
Keywords: Electoral Litigation, Electoral Act 2026, Jurisdiction, Election Petitions, Political Parties, INEC, Electoral Finality, Judicial Review, Nigeria.
