Labour Party Rejects 2027 Election Boycott as interim chair Nenadi Usman says the party is focused on fixing lapses from the 2023 polls

The Labour Party has ruled out plans to boycott the 2027 general elections, with its Interim National Chairman Nenadi Usman stating in Abuja on Saturday that the party is instead concentrating on correcting operational lapses that undermined its performance in the 2023 Nigerian general election.

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Usman made the clarification during an interview with journalists on the sidelines of the official unveiling of the party’s e-registration portal, amid growing political tensions over controversial provisions in the Electoral Act 2026 (Amendment).

Her remarks follow warnings by the Inter-Party Advisory Council that political parties could mobilise a boycott of the 2027 elections if contentious aspects of the amended electoral law are not reviewed.

Responding to questions on whether the Labour Party would align with that position, Usman said the party would not follow a “bandwagon” approach, emphasising that each political party faces different priorities.

“Every political party has its peculiarities. What bothers another political party may not be what is bothering the Labour Party at the moment,” Usman said.

According to the party leader, the Labour Party’s primary concern after the last election was not the live transmission of results through the INEC Result Viewing Portal (iREV), but the absence of agents at polling units nationwide.

Usman acknowledged that the party struggled to present critical documentary evidence in court during post-election litigation because it lacked representatives across all polling units.

“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,” she said. “We didn’t have agents in all the polling units.”

She explained that the absence of party agents meant the Labour Party could not obtain enough copies of Form EC8A, the official polling unit result sheet required as evidence in election disputes.

To address the gap, Usman said the party is now prioritising grassroots mobilisation and strengthening its presence at every polling unit ahead of the next electoral cycle.

“So right now, what we are doing is that we don’t want to depend on the iREV and say that we will not work on our grassroots support,” she said. “We are not going to repeat the 2023 mistake.”

Usman also revealed that the party is rebuilding its institutional base by reintegrating labour unions into its organisational structure.

She said the exclusion of key affiliates such as the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria weakened the party’s operations during the last election.

“What happened before was that the institutional members of our great party were completely blocked out,” Usman said.

“But now that we have corrected that error and have our members in the unions working together with us, we believe we will have people signing the Form EC8A.”

The interim chairman added that proper documentation of election results would be a central strategy for the party moving forward, particularly to strengthen its legal position in the event of disputes.

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“In a nutshell, different political parties have different issues bothering them. For us, we will face what is bothering us and fix it so that by 2027 we will be a better party,” she said.