The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed February 21, 2026 for the conduct of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this during the commission’s first consultative meeting with leaders of political parties in Abuja, yesterday.
Yakubu, who recalled that the last FCT area council election was held on February 12, 2022, said that by the effluxion of time, the tenure of the current Chairmen and Councillors ends 2026.
He said voting would take place in all the designated Polling Units (PUs) 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. February 26, 2025,” he said.
Yakubu said primaries for the election would hold from June 9 to June 30, 2025, while the candidate nomination portal would open from 9am to 6pm from July 21 to August 11.
“The final list of candidates will be published on September 22, 2025. Campaigns in public by political parties will commence on September 2025 and end at midnight of Thursday February 19, 2026,’’ he said.
The INEC boss added that the detailed timetable and schedule of activities for the election as well as the list of constituencies and type of elections in the FCT would be uploaded to the INEC website before the end of the meeting.
He also reminded leaders of political parties that the primaries for the November 8, Anambra governorship election would commence on March 20 to April 10.
He advised political parties to forward their schedule of activities for the election to the commission before the end of the week.
This, according to Yakubu would enable INEC to plan better for the deployment of personnel and resources for the monitoring of party primaries and campaign activities.
Yakubu, who said that 2025 would be a busy year for INEC, noted that the commission would soon come up with plans for other routine activities such as the resumption of nationwide Continuous Voter registration (CVR) and the conduct of outstanding by-elections.
Source: Daily Sun
