The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commenced the zoning process for its 2027 presidential ticket, with the decision expected to be ratified at the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting today (Monday).

Naijaonpoint reports that Bayelsa State Governor and Chairman of the PDP Convention Zoning Committee, Douye Diri, disclosed this in Abuja after the committee’s sitting.

Diri explained that the decision to include the presidential ticket in the zoning arrangement was made at the PDP Governors’ Forum meeting held on Saturday in Gusau, Zamfara State, which also had the Board of Trustees (BoT), former governors, ministers, and other party organs in attendance.

He said, “One of the decisions that was arrived at in that meeting is that we should not only zone the party offices, but as a national zoning committee, we should equally zone the presidency. So that arose from that meeting.”

The NEC, the party’s highest decision-making organ, is scheduled to meet at 2 pm at the PDP headquarters in Abuja.

The meeting is expected to deliberate on the zoning committee’s proposals for allocating National Working Committee (NWC) positions and the presidential ticket ahead of the national convention scheduled for November 15–16 in Ibadan, Oyo State.

Diri added, “After we presented our report from the last meeting, the leadership was satisfied with our work, but also directed us to proceed further. They pointed out that, based on the section of the party’s constitution cited in our appointment letters, it is clear that we must handle the zoning of both party offices and the presidency.”

The zoning committee, a 44-member body, had been tasked with distributing the 19 NWC offices across geopolitical zones. But last week, some PDP leaders from the South-East and South-South faulted the Lagos consultative meeting, alleging that it was held in secret and excluded “several national officers and critical stakeholders.”

They vowed to reject any “decision reached in secrecy.”

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, however, assured that the party would reach out to the aggrieved members to calm tensions.

By tradition, if the national chairmanship is zoned to the North, the presidential ticket is expected to go to the South, and vice versa.

In 2021, the PDP zoned the chairmanship to the North, while in 2022, it threw the presidential ticket open, a move that triggered a crisis that continues to divide the party.