ADC insists on releasing election results despite INEC warning
The African Democratic Congress has rejected the warning by the Independent National Electoral Commission against the sharing of privately collated election results, insisting that Nigerians have a constitutional right to collect, collate and disseminate polling-unit results.
The party said it would deploy its agents and structures to document results from polling units, collate the figures and make verified results available to the public during the 2027 general elections.
The position was contained in a statement issued on Thursday by the ADC National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, in response to comments by the INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), cautioning against the publication of unofficial results.
While acknowledging INEC’s statutory responsibility to declare official election results and announce winners, the ADC argued that the commission’s mandate does not prevent political parties, candidates or citizens from independently gathering and sharing election 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 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 statement read.
The party stressed that its proposed collation system would not be presented as a substitute for INEC’s official declaration.
According to the ADC, its intention was to provide the public with access to results recorded at polling units, while leaving the constitutional responsibility for determining and declaring the outcome with the electoral commission.
The development comes as political parties and election stakeholders intensify preparations for the 2027 general elections, with the credibility, transparency and transmission of polling-unit results expected to remain major issues in the electoral process.
The debate over the publication of independently collated results has featured prominently in Nigeria’s recent elections, particularly with the growing use of digital platforms by political parties, candidates, observers and citizens to document voting and announce results as they emerge from polling units.
The ADC maintained that transparency in the electoral process should not be interpreted as the exclusive preserve of the electoral commission, arguing that citizens and political parties also have a legitimate role in documenting the conduct and outcome of voting at polling units.
It, however, said its figures would be clearly identified as independently collated results and would not be presented as official declarations by INEC.
INEC remains the legally recognised body responsible for conducting federal and state elections, collating results through the prescribed electoral process and declaring winners.
The ADC said its position was therefore not an attempt to usurp INEC’s statutory powers but an assertion of what it described as the constitutional rights of citizens and political parties to access, document and communicate information.
“The responsibility to make official declarations of results and to declare winners of elections cannot reasonably abrogate the right of citizens to collect and collate election results and to share them,” the party added.
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