The 2027 Ballot Is Now Fixed At Eighteen Names
Abuja · Sunday 13 September 2026
INEC has released the final list of presidential candidates and running mates for the 2027 election. Eighteen parties are on it. The list was signed by the Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, and published in Abuja on Saturday. The presidential vote is scheduled for 16 January 2027.
The three tickets that will decide it
| Party | Candidate | Running mate |
|---|---|---|
| APC | Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 74 | Kashim Shettima, 59 |
| ADC | Atiku Abubakar, 79 | Rotimi Amaechi, 61 |
| NDC | Peter Obi, 65 | Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, 69 |
Fifteen other parties are also on the ballot.
Two women out of eighteen
Sixteen of the eighteen presidential candidates are men, which is 88.9 per cent. Nigeria has never had a female president or vice president, and the figure has barely moved across democratic cycles. It is not a failure of the ballot paper. It is the arithmetic of party primaries, where the money and the delegate structures sit.
A ballot is the last step of a filtering process that began in party offices months ago. By the time it is published, the important decisions have all been made.
What the shape of the field tells you
The two main challengers have each paired a candidate from one region with a running mate from another, and both have reached for figures with existing structures rather than new faces. Amaechi brings Rivers and a national profile. Kwankwaso brings Kano, which is one of the largest single blocs of votes in the country. Neither pairing is about ideology. Both are about arithmetic.
What happens next
Campaigning, formally and at scale, for four months. The things worth watching are not the rallies but the administration: PVC distribution, the result transmission system INEC has been consulting Microsoft and Google about, and whether the commission publishes the figures that would let anybody check its work before the argument starts.
Reporting: Vanguard, Businessday, Legit.ng and New Telegraph.
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