The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) has won all 20 chairmanship seats in Bauchi State’s local government elections, with Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission (BASIEC) Chairperson Jummai Abubakar announcing the sweeping result after Monday’s poll.

The result gives APM control of every local government chairmanship in the state, while its candidates also secured 319 of the available councillorship seats.

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Only four councillorship positions went to other parties, with the Social Democratic Party, National Rescue Movement, Zenith Labour Party and Young Progressives Party each securing one seat.

Abubakar said the commission had conducted the election independently and that the declared winners met the legal requirements by recording the highest number of valid votes in their respective constituencies.

The scale of the APM victory, however, has been overshadowed by an opposition boycott that preceded the vote.

A coalition of opposition parties announced on Sunday that it would withdraw from the election, alleging that the process had been designed to favour the ruling party. The coalition subsequently urged its supporters not to participate.

Governor Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed rejected the suggestion that the boycott undermined the election.

After casting his vote, the governor described the process as peaceful and maintained that the withdrawal by opposition parties did not invalidate the poll.

The controversy leaves the APM victory politically significant but also raises questions about the competitiveness of an election in which the principal opposition groups did not participate.

The Bauchi State Government had declared Monday a work-free day to enable civil servants and other workers, including employees in the local government, state and federal sectors and the banking industry, to take part in the election.

The contest is also unfolding against a wider backdrop of political realignment in Bauchi ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 elections.

Governor Mohammed, a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, has remained a prominent figure in northern Nigerian politics, while recent speculation has centred on possible shifts in party alliances.

The governor’s political strength in Bauchi has previously been demonstrated in statewide elections.

In the 2023 governorship election, Mohammed retained office for the PDP with 525,280 votes, defeating APC candidate Sadique Abubakar, who received 432,272 votes.

The latest local government result gives the ruling political structure another powerful electoral foothold at grassroots level.

For APM, securing all 20 chairmanship positions and the overwhelming majority of councillorship seats represents a substantial victory.

For the opposition parties, however, the decision to boycott means the result is unlikely to end the political argument over the credibility and competitiveness of the exercise.

BASIEC’s declaration now places the focus on how the new council administrations will operate and whether the opposition parties will accept the outcome or continue to challenge the process politically.

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The election may therefore have concluded at the polling stations, but the debate over its legitimacy and political significance is likely to continue well beyond the declaration of results.