2027 Elections: Agbakoba Exposes Major Weakness in Political Parties, Reveals How to Prevent Vote Rigging
2027 Elections: Agbakoba Exposes Major Weakness in Political Parties, Reveals How to Prevent Vote Rigging
By Akin Alade
As Nigeria prepares for the 2027 general elections, former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Dr. Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, has challenged political parties to strengthen their election-monitoring structures rather than depend entirely on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to establish the authenticity of election results.
The respected constitutional lawyer argued that one of the greatest weaknesses in Nigeria’s electoral system is the inability of political parties to independently gather, authenticate and preserve results from polling units across the country, a situation he believes creates opportunities for manipulation and makes election petitions more difficult to prosecute.
Agbakoba maintained that political parties seeking elective offices, particularly the presidency, must demonstrate sufficient organisational capacity to deploy polling agents, obtain authenticated result sheets and establish reliable systems for monitoring votes from polling units to the final collation centres.
According to him, the deployment of modern technology, including artificial intelligence-assisted collation systems, could significantly strengthen electoral transparency by enabling political parties and independent observers to compare polling-unit figures with records uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
The senior advocate explained that political parties should not wait until election disputes reach the courts before attempting to obtain electoral documents from INEC. He stressed that properly organised parties should already possess authenticated records capable of supporting their claims whenever discrepancies arise.
Agbakoba also faulted attempts to discourage citizens and media organisations from publishing verified polling-unit results, insisting that INEC’s exclusive constitutional and statutory responsibility to formally declare election outcomes should not prevent Nigerians from reporting authentic electoral information already available in the public domain.
In a letter dated October 12, 2026, addressed to the INEC chairman, the former NBA president cited Section 39(1) of the 1999 Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, arguing that journalists, election observers and ordinary citizens should be allowed to examine, analyse and communicate verified election results without unlawfully assuming the commission’s responsibility to declare winners.
The legal practitioner emphasised that independent monitoring would not undermine INEC’s authority but could instead improve the credibility of the commission by subjecting official electoral records to greater public scrutiny. He expressed optimism that a transparent system of independent verification could discourage manipulation and reduce controversies surrounding election outcomes.
Agbakoba consequently urged political parties to invest in credible polling agents, digital result-management platforms and effective nationwide monitoring structures ahead of the 2027 elections, warning that parties unable to protect and document their votes should not expect the electoral commission alone to provide the evidence needed to challenge disputed results.
His intervention has brought renewed attention to the responsibilities of political parties, the importance of public access to electoral records and the urgent need to strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s democratic process before voters return to the polls in 2027.
