ADC Warns INEC Against Using Partisan Lecturers as Returning Officers for 2027 Polls

Photo Credit: Image used courtesy of The Sun Newspaper / ADC
ADC Warns INEC Against Using Partisan Lecturers as Returning Officers for 2027 Polls
The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to stop engaging university lecturers who have openly endorsed political candidates as Returning and Collation Officers for the 2027 general elections.

The party said allowing academics who have publicly declared support for a candidate to collate results and declare winners would create a clear conflict of interest and erode public confidence in the electoral process.

In a statement issued on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC was reacting to reports that over 600 lecturers from public universities in the North have endorsed President Bola Tinubu ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

The ADC noted that INEC has traditionally relied on university lecturers and vice-chancellors for the sensitive roles of collating results and declaring winners.

While it acknowledged that academics, like all Nigerians, have the constitutional right to support any candidate of their choice, the party argued that anyone who has taken a public partisan position should not be given the responsibility of determining the outcome of an election involving that same candidate.

“The principle is straightforward: 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,” the party said.

The party therefore called on INEC to establish and publish clear disqualification criteria for prospective electoral officers who have publicly endorsed candidates, participated in partisan activities, or shown obvious political affiliation.

It also urged the commission to publish the list of proposed Returning and Collation Officers well ahead of the elections, to allow political parties and the public to raise legitimate concerns over conflict of interest.

“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. Nigerians must never be placed in a position where those who have publicly chosen a side are subsequently presented as neutral arbiters of the contest,” the ADC added.
SOURCE: – The Sun Newspaper