Stop using women only as voters, INEC tells political parties

From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has challenged political parties over the glaring exclusion of women from elective positions, saying they constitute more than half of new registered voters but remain largely shut out of the country’s political leadership.

INEC Chairman, Joash Amupitan, said political parties must move beyond paying lip service to women’s participation and open genuine pathways for them to emerge as candidates and political leaders ahead of the 2027 general election.

“A democracy that mobilises women as voters but provides limited pathways for them to become political leaders is yet to fully realise its representative potential,” he said.

Amupitan, represented by National Commissioner, Rhoda Gumus, spoke at a strategic engagement with political party leaders, female candidates, Civil Society Organisations, development partners and the media in Abuja.

INEC figures presented at the meeting underscored the disparity.

Of the 3,867,997 Nigerians who completed registration in the third phase of the ongoing voter registration exercise as of July 26, 2026, women accounted for 2,037,589, representing 52.68 per cent, against 1,830,408 men.

The commission said the figures showed that women constituted the majority of new registrants.

But their numerical strength as voters has not translated into political representation.

In the 2023 general election, only 1,556 of the 15,331 candidates who contested major elective positions were women, representing 10.15 per cent.

Only three women were elected to the Senate and 16 to the House of Representatives, accounting for 2.8 per cent and 4.4 per cent of the respective chambers.

Women had similarly constituted 44,414,846, or 47.52 per cent, of the 93,469,008 registered voters for the 2023 general election.

“Women are not marginal to Nigeria’s electoral population. They are a substantial part of the electorate,” Gumus said.

She added: “A substantial gap appears to exist between women’s participation as voters and their participation as political leaders.”

INEC said the challenge went beyond getting women to vote in a single election and touched on the inclusiveness and long-term sustainability of Nigeria’s democracy.

The commission consequently challenged political parties to examine their internal structures and remove barriers preventing women from emerging as candidates.

It urged them to provide practical support to female aspirants and candidates through access to party leadership and structures, campaign platforms, media visibility, fundraising networks, mentoring, political communication, logistics, security and grassroots mobilisation.

“The participation of women is not a favour to women. It is a democratic imperative,” Gumus said, urging political parties to move “from commitment to action, from aspiration to implementation.”

Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said increasing women’s political representation could not be achieved by INEC or any single institution acting alone.

Her address, delivered by Director, Gender and Inclusivity Department, Lakunuya Dorothy Bello, identified political parties as critical to reversing the imbalance because they determine who gets opportunities to contest elections.

She said parties’ policies, structures, internal processes and practices ultimately shape who emerges as candidates and who has a realistic opportunity to win elections.

INEC urged parties and other stakeholders to use the engagement to move beyond acknowledging the problem and make practical commitments capable of increasing women’s representation in the 2027 elections.