The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has announced plans to independently monitor and collate its election results during the 2027 general elections, saying it no longer wants to rely solely on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to protect its votes.
The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, disclosed this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday.
Abdullahi said the decision was influenced by the party’s experience during the 2023 general elections, particularly the challenges surrounding the electronic transmission of results to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
According to him, candidates were assured that results from polling units would be transmitted automatically to the portal, but technical problems later affected the process.
He said the experience had made the party more cautious ahead of the 2027 elections.
“We can no longer trust INEC to protect our votes for us. We are saying that we will vigilantly guard our own votes. We will protect our own votes,” Abdullahi said.
The ADC spokesman clarified that the party’s proposed arrangement would not replace INEC’s statutory responsibility to collate and declare election results.
He said the party would instead maintain its own records from polling units and use them to verify the official figures announced by the electoral commission.
Abdullahi said the ADC would accept results if they correspond with the figures recorded by its agents at polling units but would challenge results that it believes do not reflect the votes actually cast.
The party has also raised concerns about alleged attacks on some of its members and supporters in different parts of the country, calling for stronger measures to protect political participants ahead of the 2027 elections.
Abdullahi said the ADC would continue to encourage its members to participate in the electoral process peacefully while putting measures in place to safeguard their votes.
The development comes as political parties intensify preparations for the 2027 general elections, with electronic result transmission, vote collation and electoral security expected to remain key issues in the preparations for the polls.
