The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has vowed to document, collate and publish polling-unit results during the 2027 general elections, despite a warning from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) against the publication of privately collated election results.
The party said it recognised INEC’s legal authority to make official declarations and announce winners of elections but maintained that the commission’s responsibility did not prevent political parties, election agents and citizens from independently recording and sharing information from polling units.
The ADC made its position known in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, following the warning by INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, against the sharing of privately collated election results.
The party argued that its planned collation of results was protected by the constitutional right to freedom of expression and access to information.
“We are aware of our rights to freedom of expression under the Constitution. We are also aware of the limitations associated with those rights. And we hold that our rights to collate and share election results are not abrogated by any of the limitation clauses,” the ADC said.
The opposition party explained that its polling agents would record the results announced at individual polling units, after which its structures would collate and verify the figures before making them available to the public.
“The ADC will share our collated results with the public. Our agents will document results, our structures will collate them, and we will communicate verified figures to the public, clearly identifying their source and status,” the party said.
ADC stressed that its decision to publish its figures would not amount to assuming INEC’s statutory responsibility to declare the official results of the elections.
“Although we recognise INEC’s responsibility to make official declarations of results and to declare winners of elections, that responsibility cannot reasonably abrogate the right of citizens to collect and collate election results and to share them,” the party said.
Meanwhile, the presidency has already predicted a wide victory for Tinubu in the 2027 presidential election, with Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Policy Communications, claiming that the margin would be unexpectedly large.
Bwala made the prediction during an interview on Channels Television on Wednesday, where he discussed the political strength of Tinubu ahead of the election.
“All the governors of the North-East, let me tell you, and let me say it categorically, and I’ll be happy to come back. The margin of gap that President Bola Tinubu will give each and every one of these candidates will be so much that you won’t believe it,” Bwala said.
When asked whether he had already written the outcome of the election, the presidential aide rejected the suggestion and said his assessment was based on what he described as data.
“No, I’m saying, you asked me to give data now, so this is data. You speak to conjecture; I speak to data,” he said.
Bwala pointed to the number of governors supporting Tinubu, arguing that governors control significant political structures in their states and could therefore influence the outcome of the 2027 election.
“In fact, since then, President Bola Tinubu has got how many governors on his side? How many governors have joined him?” he asked.
The presidential aide said the governors had won their own elections and were now putting their political structures and resources behind the President.
“They won their own election to be governors. These people say, ‘We’re putting our goodwill, our resources, our structure and our support to the President,’” Bwala said.
He also argued that the performance of Tinubu’s administration and the number of Nigerians he believes have benefited from its policies should be considered when assessing the President’s chances in 2027.
“You multiply that by the number of people that have come to him, then you stretch it further by the people who are impacted positively by his policy,” he said.
