POLITICS
2027: 592 candidates to battle for governorship, NASS, Assembly seats in Benue – INEC
2027: 592 candidates to battle for governorship, NASS, Assembly seats in Benue – INEC
The Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in the state, Aminu Idris, disclosed this on Wednesday during an INEC stakeholders’ meeting at the commission’s Benue State Collation Centre in Makurdi.
The meeting was attended by representatives of political parties, civil society organisations and the media, who received updates on the commission’s preparations for the forthcoming elections.
Idris announced that the presidential and National Assembly elections would hold on Saturday, January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State House of Assembly elections were scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2027.
Providing details of the candidates, the REC disclosed that 18 political parties were participating in the presidential race, while 12 parties had candidates for the governorship election.
He said 40 candidates would contest the three senatorial seats in Benue, comprising 12 in Benue North-East, Zone A, 13 in Benue North-West, Zone B, and 15 in Benue South, Zone C.
According to him, 118 candidates are vying for the 11 House of Representatives seats in the state, with Otukpo/Ohimini Federal Constituency recording the highest number of 15 candidates.
He said the list for the presidential and national assembly elections was released on September 12, 2026, while that for the governorship and state assembly elections was published on October 10, 2026.
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Idris also urged political parties to commence training for their polling agents ahead of the exercise, particularly on the procedures for uploading and deploying agents to polling units and collation centres.
On the restoration of state constituencies, he explained that Benue’s State Assembly constituencies had increased from 32 to 37 following court judgments that reinstated 27 constituencies across Benue, Delta, Jigawa and Kogi states.
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He identified the five restored constituencies in Benue as Ukum II (Afia) in Ukum Local Government Area; Konshisha (Shange-Tiev) in Konshisha; Gboko III (Central) in Gboko; Makurdi III (South-East) in Makurdi; and Nyamatsor in Buruku.
On electoral logistics and technology, the REC disclosed that the commission had begun distributing non-sensitive election materials to its state and area council offices.
He added that INEC had completed the inventory of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices in preparation for the polls.
According to him, 5,381 BVAS devices were physically inspected, out of which 5,277, representing 98 per cent, were confirmed to be functional and ready for deployment.
He said the commission had notified its national headquarters of the faulty devices for necessary replacements.
The REC also reported that the display of the voter register for claims and objections took place across the 23 local government areas between October 9 and 15, 2026.
He said the exercise generated 1,052 submissions, comprising 947 claims and 105 objections.
During the same period, 58,581 Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, were collected across the state.
The figure included 9,139 old PVCs, 28,854 cards issued through the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise, 12,707 transferred PVCs and 7,881 replacement cards.
Idris further disclosed that Benue received 101,695 PVCs from INEC headquarters under Phase One of the CVR and voter transfer exercise.
The consignment comprised 54,724 newly issued PVCs and 46,971 cards for transferred voters.
He stated that all previously issued PVCs were still available for collection at the commission’s offices across the 23 local government areas, adding that a separate announcement would be made concerning cards from the second and third phases of the CVR exercise.
The REC also informed civil society organisations that the portal for submitting applications to observe the 2027 general elections closed on October 26, 2026.
He urged organisations seeking to deploy observers to work with their national headquarters to ensure that their field personnel were duly uploaded and accredited and provided with observer identification cards and tags before the elections.
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