The Labour Party has dismissed reports that it may boycott the 2027 general elections, saying its focus is instead 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 on Saturday while speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the unveiling of the party’s e-registration portal in Abuja.
Her remarks come 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) are 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 face 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 on the party’s experience during 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.
“That important Form EC8A, we didn’t have people in every polling unit signing and bringing it out for us to use as proof that we actually got what we said we had,” she added.
Usman said the party had now shifted its focus toward strengthening its grassroots structures to ensure it has agents in all polling units ahead of the next election cycle.
She stressed that the party would no longer rely solely on electronic systems such as the iREV portal to track election results.
“We don’t want to depend on the iREV and say that we will not work on our grassroots support. We are not going to repeat the 2023 mistake,” she said.
The Labour Party leader also disclosed that the party was rebuilding its institutional base by reintegrating labour unions into its activities.
According to her, the exclusion of key institutional members such as the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria weakened the party’s field operations during the 2023 election.
“What happened before was that the institutional members of our great party, the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress were completely blocked out, and their members across the country were not even allowed to help at polling units,” she said.
Usman expressed optimism that with labour unions fully involved, the party would have stronger representation at polling units nationwide.
She added that the Labour Party would prioritise proper documentation of election results to strengthen its legal position in the event of future disputes.
“We will not shirk our responsibility of having agents in polling units and just say we want to depend on iREV. We will have our papers properly documented so that if anything goes wrong, we can produce them in court and do what we were unable to do in 2023,” she said.
Usman maintained that while other political parties might choose to boycott the election over grievances, the Labour Party would remain focused on fixing its internal challenges and preparing for the 2027 polls.
“If any political party feels that they are so aggrieved and do not want to participate in 2027, honestly we are not going to stop them. But we will not adopt a bandwagon effect because we are the workers’ party,” she said.
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