The African Democratic Congress has warned that public trust in the 2027 election results could be weakened if people perceived to be partisan are appointed to collate or declare the results.
The party, therefore, urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to ensure that only officials who can demonstrate neutrality are given sensitive electoral responsibilities.
The ADC made the call following a report that more than 600 senior lecturers from public universities across Northern Nigeria had endorsed President Bola Tinubu for the 2027 presidential election.
In a statement on Monday, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, said the reported endorsement raised concerns about the neutrality of academics who could later be appointed as Returning or Collation Officers.
University lecturers and vice-chancellors have routinely been appointed by INEC to perform sensitive election duties, including collating results and declaring winners.
Abdullahi acknowledged that academics, like other Nigerians, had the constitutional right to support any political candidate.
However, he said voters could find it difficult to trust the outcome if an official who had publicly backed a candidate was later involved in determining the result of an election in which that candidate was contesting.
“You cannot campaign for a candidate and then be entrusted with counting the votes and declaring winners in the same election that your candidate is contesting in,” he said.
The ADC called on INEC to establish and publish clear criteria for selecting election officials, including rules that would exclude prospective officials who had publicly endorsed candidates, participated in partisan political activities or demonstrated obvious political affiliations.
It also urged the commission to publish the names of proposed Returning and Collation Officers well before the elections.
The party said early publication would allow political parties and members of the public to raise concerns about possible conflicts of interest before the officials were assigned their duties.
According to the ADC, neutrality should be treated as a key part of electoral credibility because voters are more likely to accept results when they believe those responsible for handling them were impartial.
The party said even where there was no evidence of wrongdoing, the perception that an election official had already taken a political side could create doubts about the result.
“The integrity of an election does not begin when the first ballot is cast. It begins with the neutrality of the people entrusted to administer, collate, and declare its outcome,” Abdullahi said.
The ADC said ensuring neutral election officials would help INEC strengthen confidence in the 2027 process and make the eventual results easier for Nigerians and political parties to trust and accept.
