2027: Opposition parties eye consensus over costly direct primaries

News There are strong indications that opposition parties and their aspirants for the 2027 presidential election will settle for a consensus following the release of the revised timetable by the Independent National Electoral Commission. Sunday PUNCH gathered that major stakeholders in the African Democratic Congress, Peoples Democratic Party, the New Nigeria Peoples Party and the Labour Party were considering picking their candidates through consensus. According to some chieftains of the parties, direct primaries will strain their purses and weaken their financial capacities ahead of the polls, hence the need to convince all aspirants to agree on a consensus. The parties had earlier faulted the recently enacted Electoral Act 2026, which restricts all political parties to either direct primaries or consensus in picking candidates for elective offices. Section 84 of the Electoral Act states, “A political party seeking to nominate candidates for elections under this Act shall hold primaries for aspirants to all elective positions, which shall be monitored by the commission. The procedure for the nomination of candidates by political parties for the various elective positions shall be by direct primaries or consensus.” The 2022 Electoral Act had provided for delegate elections in the nomination of candidates by the parties. But the provision was removed by the National Assembly during the review of the Electoral Act, a development that triggered protests from opposition parties. The opposition parties had also rejected Section 77(2) of the Electoral Act, which mandates parties to submit their digital membership register to INEC at least 21 days before any primary, congress, or convention. According to the provision, non-compliance will result in the disqualification of parties from fielding candidates. Following the enactment of the Electoral Act 2026, INEC, on February 26, issued a new election timetable. In the new timetable, the commission stated that the conduct of party primaries, including the resolution of disputes arising from them, will commence on April 23, 2026, and end on May 30, 2026. Apparently, racing against time and the need to manage available funds for the general elections, findings by Sunday PUNCH showed that the leadership of the opposition parties is mulling a consensus to choose their candidates.

Currently, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, and former governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, have openly declared their intention to pick the presidential ticket of the ADC. A principal official of the ADC told one of our correspondents that the party leadership was working towards having a consensus candidate. “It is most likely we will have a consensus candidate because, given the situation we are in, consensus is the best option for us. We didn’t give it much attention before, but now that we have been restricted to either direct primaries or consensus, we have to go for consensus. “Everybody knows that direct primaries are logistically difficult given the time frame that has been imposed on us. So, we are likely going to have a consensus, and the leadership of the party will meet on that very shortly. In fact, some leaders are already making moves on it,” he said. However, the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Bolaji Abdullahi, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, said the party had yet to discuss the issue of consensus. Though he acknowledged that consensus would save the party and its candidates a huge amount of money, Abdullahi maintained that the party would ensure a fair and transparent process in choosing its candidates from presidential to councillorship positions. “Everybody knows that consensus will save us a lot of money and logistics, but the party leadership has yet to discuss that,” he said.