2027: NDC to field candidates in 28 states — Umeh

By Providence Ayanfeoluwa

ABUJA: The National Democratic Congress, NDC, has said it is fully prepared for the 2027 general elections, dismissing reports that the opposition party lacks governorship candidates in 12 states.

Senator Victor Umeh, representing Anambra Central Senatorial District, also said the party would deploy agents to every polling unit across the country to protect its votes.

Umeh, who spoke on Arise TV, described the reports about the party’s governorship candidates as political propaganda aimed at diminishing the NDC’s influence ahead of the elections.

He said the party had candidates for all the 28 governorship seats to be contested in 2027, citing Zamfara State, where he said Senator Kabiru Marafa, his former colleague in the 8th Senate, is the NDC governorship candidate.

Umeh said the party had also fielded candidates for the National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly.

“We have candidates for all the elective positions, 109 senatorial candidates, 360 House of Representatives candidates,” he said.

He added that the party had candidates at the grassroots level, saying its growing membership was another indication of its expanding political base.

“The party is very entrenched and is amassing membership by the day,” he said.

However, when challenged to provide empirical evidence of the party’s popularity across the six geopolitical zones, Umeh could not immediately provide independent sentiment-analysis data.

He disagreed that the absence of such data indicated that the party was unprepared for the election, arguing that campaigns had only commenced on August 19 and that more reliable opinion poll data would emerge as the campaigns progressed.

On election integrity, the senator said the NDC was already putting structures in place to protect its votes at polling units.

He said having candidates across the country would strengthen the party’s ability to deploy polling agents and monitor voting and collation.

Umeh said the party’s structure provided for 13 polling-unit executives, while he was personally working to establish an additional 20 coordinators in every polling unit within his senatorial constituency.

“We are going to be present in every polling unit in Nigeria,” he said.

According to him, the party had learnt lessons from previous elections and understood the importance of securing polling-unit results.

Recalling his involvement in the Electoral Act amendment process, Umeh said NDC agents would be prepared to obtain result sheets signed by presiding officers.

“You must be able to be in possession of the polling unit results signed by the presiding officers,” he said.

On the controversy surrounding the names of some candidates uploaded on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, portal in Anambra State, Umeh said the final authority to submit a party’s candidates rested with the political party after its internal appeal process.

He alleged that some of the names published by INEC were not submitted through the authorised party process, adding that the NDC had written to the commission and would seek legal redress if the disputed names were not corrected.