2027: NDC plans 13-man team for every polling unit

Abimbola Joseph

The National Democratic Congress says it is building a 13-member executive structure in every polling unit across Nigeria ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The party’s Anambra Central Senator, Victor Umeh, disclosed this in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Friday, saying the arrangement was designed to strengthen the party’s grassroots presence and ensure that it had representatives at polling units nationwide.

Umeh said the 13-member structure was provided for in the party’s constitution and would form the basis for mobilising polling agents during the elections.

“NDC has a structure where every polling unit, we have 13 people in that polling unit dedicated to duty,” he said.

He added that the party was working to replicate the structure across the country, with the aim of ensuring that no polling unit was left without NDC representatives on election day.

Umeh said the party was also relying on candidates contesting the 2027 elections to deepen its presence at the grassroots.

He explained that having candidates across constituencies would make it easier for the party to mobilise agents and establish structures at polling units.

“Today, I’m giving you that NDC has been able to field candidates for all the positions that are being contested in the 2027 general elections,” he said.

Beyond the party’s 13-member polling-unit executives, Umeh said he was establishing an additional 20-member coordinator structure in every polling unit in his capacity as a candidate.

He said the additional arrangement was intended to prevent last-minute difficulties in recruiting and deploying polling agents.

“We, for example, are the candidates in the election. Apart from the 13-man polling-unit executives the party has in its constitution, I, as a candidate, am also building a 20-man coordinator in every polling unit,” he said.

Umeh also said the party was preparing its agents to monitor the collation and transmission of results, particularly the polling-unit result sheets.

He said NDC wanted its agents to obtain copies of the EC8A result sheets signed by presiding officers at every polling unit.

“We have been preparing ahead, knowing that at the end of it, we must be able to have the polling-unit results signed by the presiding officers,” he said.

Umeh assured that the party would have agents deployed across the country on election day, saying, “You won’t find any polling unit unmarked by agents of the NDC.”