The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) has questioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the publication of 10 candidates for the Anambra State House of Assembly whom the party said it did not nominate or submit through its candidate nomination process.

In a statement on Wednesday, the party alleged that the NDC did not upload the names and Form EC9E documents of the 10 candidates and did not emerge from its nomination and appeal processes.

The party consequently demanded an immediate electronic audit of INEC’s candidate nomination portal to establish how the disputed names and documents entered the commission’s system.

The NDC said the nomination process requires a political party to submit the names and particulars of its approved candidates, after which INEC processes and publishes the candidates.

It maintained that it uploaded only candidates who emerged from its appeal process, but alleged that INEC rejected those nominees.

“It is the party’s legal responsibility to submit the names and credentials of its nominated candidates,” the statement said. “The NDC did not collect or forward completed EC9E forms for the 10 persons whose names later appeared on INEC’s published list.”

The party questioned how the commission obtained the credentials of the disputed candidates if they were not submitted through the party.

“How did the Commission obtain their credentials when it is the party’s legal duty to submit the names of its approved candidates?” it asked.

The NDC also referred to an earlier account by its National Chairman, Senator Moses Cleopas, who said he was the custodian of the access code issued to the party for uploading candidates and did not upload the disputed names.

According to Cleopas’ account, following the party’s primaries and appeal process, Anambra stakeholders, working with party leadership, representatives of the presidential candidate and the appeals panel, produced a final list that was signed off by the relevant parties.

He said the list was subsequently uploaded using the access code provided by INEC. However, according to the NDC, officials with control of the backend of the nomination portal kept some of the party’s preferred candidates on “Pending” status, citing names allegedly already contained in the system and attributed to field monitors who monitored the party’s primaries.

The NDC said that after formally appealing the disputed entries and submitting its preferred nominees with a covering letter, INEC allegedly declined to replace them.

The party further alleged that the commission subsequently obtained Form EC9 directly from the disputed candidates and published their names as NDC candidates without the party’s approval.

Cleopas described the development as contrary to the Electoral Act and INEC’s guidelines.

He argued that if there was a discrepancy between candidates submitted by the party and names allegedly obtained by INEC from its monitoring teams, the commission should have left the affected positions vacant rather than preloading names and preventing the party from uploading its nominees.

“At the very worst, INEC could have left us with no candidates for those positions if it was unwilling to engage us on any perceived anomaly,” he said.

The NDC chairman also alleged that the development reflected an emerging pattern in which INEC prevents political parties from uploading candidates they consider legitimate nominees while imposing other names on them.

He said such actions could deepen internal disputes within political parties, particularly opposition parties.

Cleopas vowed that the NDC would continue to pursue the matter until, according to him, the disputed nominations were reversed.

The party called on INEC to conduct an electronic audit of the candidate nomination portal, including its audit trail, to determine when, how and through which access credentials the 10 names and their associated documents were entered into the system.

The NDC alleged that the names were introduced through the backend of the portal, but the commission had not, as of the time of the statement, publicly provided an explanation for the disputed entries.

The statement was signed by Agada Abuh Theophilus, Director of New Media and Strategic Communications of the NDC.

The Guardian reached out to INEC for clarification but has not yet received a response.