2027: OBI UNVEILS PLAN TO TRACK EVERY VOTE
… Says supporters will stay with results from polling units to final declaration
By PHC Telegraph
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, NDC, says his campaign will independently track polling-unit results in 2027 as part of measures to prevent a repeat of the controversies which followed the 2023 presidential election.
Speaking on ARISE News, Obi said his supporters would closely monitor votes from polling units through the collation process, insisting that results must be properly counted, recorded and transmitted.
“We must make sure that at every polling unit, the votes are counted, the votes are recorded properly, the votes are transmitted properly,” Obi said.
He disclosed that his campaign intends to operate what he described as “dual transmission”, through which polling-unit results would also be sent to its situation room for independent verification.
The strategy reflects Obi’s continuing dissatisfaction with the conduct of the 2023 presidential election, particularly the difficulties encountered in uploading presidential polling-unit results to INEC’s IReV portal.
INEC officially declared Bola Tinubu winner of that election with 8,794,726 votes. Atiku Abubakar finished second with 6,984,520 votes, while Obi, then candidate of the Labour Party, came third with 6,101,533 votes.
Obi challenged the outcome, but his petition was dismissed by the Presidential Election Petition Court and the Supreme Court subsequently affirmed Tinubu’s election.
The former Anambra State governor nevertheless maintains that lessons from 2023 mean his supporters cannot simply vote and leave polling units without ensuring that their ballots are properly recorded.
INEC, now headed by Professor Joash Amupitan, has said lessons have also been learnt from the technical problems experienced in 2023 and has promised improvements ahead of the 2027 election.
Obi also renewed his pledge to serve only one four-year term if elected President, arguing that four years are sufficient for a purposeful administration to put Nigeria firmly on a new path.
For Obi, however, getting that mandate begins at the polling unit — and in 2027, he says his political organisation intends to independently follow the votes all the way to the final declaration.
