EU Boycotts Nigeria’s 2027 General Elections

By Suleiman Anyalewechi

The European Union has said it will not be deploying a full compliment of its observer team when Nigerians go to the polls as from January 2027.

The EU and several other International bodies, including civil society groups, have always played a leading role in monitoring the conduct of elections in Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999.

But citing twin problems relating to the worsening security challenges in parts of the country, and alleged hostile treatment meted out to its 2023 election monitors and officials in the wake of its honest assessment of the exercise, the umbrella body of European countries said it will not be fully part of the 2027 polls.

The EU’s position is coming in response to official invitations extended to EU and other International development partners by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to formally observe the 2027 general elections.

But the EU informed the electoral umpire that rather than sending full observers as before to monitor the exercise across the country, it will only be sending a few officials who will be observing and reporting from Abuja, the country’s capital.

The body said there will be no observers in States, no short-term observers on election day, and no Chief observer of the type that it used to send.

It will be recalled that the EU had  deployed  approximately 110 observers drawn from 25 members states in the 2023 ,in addition to a delegation of the EU parliament who later joined in monitoring the conduct of the Presidential and Governorship elections of February 25 and March 18 ,2023 .

However, the Union’s reports, presented in June 2023, provoked unusual controversies as the Government hotly disputed most of its damning verdict on the conduct of the polls

Particularly, the EU mission identified several cases of what it described as “systemic weaknesses and shortcomings in the electoral law and administration”,which it noted significantly prevented the conduct of free ,fair and inclusive elections, thereby negatively impacting public trust in INEC.

The EU, however, did not find funny the alleged sponsorship of pro-Government protesters who, for hours, besieged the Mission’s Abuja office , accusing it of bias.

The decision of the EU in substantially scaling down its observer mission is most likely to negatively impact it’s usual financial assistance to the electoral body.