INEC Fixes Date For FCT Council Election
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed February 21, 2026, for the conduct of the federal capital territory (FCT) area council elections.
Mahmood Yakubu, INEC chairman, made the announcement on Wednesday during a consultative meeting with political parties at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.
He said the last area council election in the FCT was held on February 12, 2022, adding that the tenure of the current chairmen and councillors will end next year.
“Consequently, the commission has approved that the 2026 area council election in FCT will hold on Saturday 21st February 2026,” he said.
“Voting will take place in all the designated Polling Units across the 68 constituencies to elect the six Area Council Chairmen and 62 Councilors.
“In compliance with the mandatory legal requirements, the notice for the election will be published next month i.e. 26th February 2025. Party primaries will be held from 9th – 30th June 2025. The candidate nomination portal will open from 9.00am on 21st July 2025 to 6.00pm on 11th August 2025.”
Yakubu said the final list of candidates will be published on September 22, 2025, adding that campaigns will commence on September 24 and end at midnight of February 19, 2026.
“The detailed timetable and schedule of activities for the election as well as the list of constituencies and type of elections in the FCT will be uploaded to our website before the end of this meeting,” he said.
“Hardcopies of the two documents have been included in your folders for this meeting. For your guidance, we are also including the hardcopies of the regulation and guidelines for political parties 2022 in your folders while the softcopy is already available from our website www.inecnigeria.org.
“In due course, the Commission will come up with plans for other routine activities such as the resumption of nationwide Continuous Voter registration (CVR) and the conduct of outstanding bye-elections.”
The INEC chairman said regarding the Anambra state governorship election holding on November 8, 2025, the next activity is the conduct of primaries by political parties.
“May I remind leaders of political parties that primaries for the nomination of candidates for the Anambra State Governorship election begins in the next two months, that is, 20th March to 10th April 2025,” he added.
“You may similarly recall that at our last regular meeting, we agreed that you will forward your schedule of activities for the election to the Commission to enable us work together and plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of your party primaries and campaign activities, in order to avoid the last minute rush with the attendant inability to meet deadlines and unnecessarily dissipate our energy and lean resources.
“So far, only a few parties are in compliance. I urge those that have not done so to submit the details by the end of this week.”
