LP Rules Out Boycott of 2027 Elections

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

The Labour Party has dismissed reports that it might boycott the 2027 general election, saying instead, its focus was on addressing the weaknesses that affected its performance during the 2023 polls.

The Interim National Chairman of the party, Nenadi Usman, clarified the party’s position  while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the unveiling of the party’s e-registration portal in Abuja.

Her remarks came amid rising tensions in the country’s political space following threats by the Inter-Party Advisory Council to mobilise political parties to boycott the 2027 elections if certain provisions in the recently enacted Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment) were not reviewed.

Responding to questions on whether the Labour Party would align with the proposed boycott, Usman said the party would not adopt a “bandwagon” approach, stressing that political parties faced different challenges.

“Every political party has its peculiarities. What bothers another political party may not be what is bothering the Labour Party at the moment,” she said.

She noted that issues such as the transmission of election results through the INEC Results Viewing Portal (iREV) were not the party’s primary concern.

According to her, the Labour Party’s biggest challenge during the 2023 elections was the inability to deploy agents to all polling units across the country.

Reflecting further on the 2023 presidential election, Usman said the absence of polling agents made it difficult for the party to present documentary evidence in court when it challenged the outcome of the election.

“If you remember, in 2023, when we claimed that we won the election, when it was time for us to print out our evidence in court, we could not. The reason was that we didn’t have agents in all the polling units,” she said.

She explained that the party lacked representatives to sign and collect the critical Form EC8A at several polling units, which limited its ability to substantiate its claims during legal proceedings.