Nigeria’s main opposition party, PDP, said on Wednesday that it is in talks with seven other political parties for potential alliance ahead of the 2019 general elections.

Jerry Gana, a former Minister of Information and member of Ahmed Makarfi-led faction, said during the presentation of a report by the PDP’s strategy committee in Abuja, that the party had been in talks with only the political parties that have strong democratic tenets.

Mr. Gana, who expressed optimism that the APC will be defeated in 2019, said preliminary outreach by the PDP “yielded positive responses from seven people-focused and social democratic parties.”

Mr. Gana said the alliance will not culminate in a mega party as being rumoured in some quarters but will instead be “a separate and highly principled initiative of the PDP.”

The PDP dominated Nigerian government at the centre since 1998 until it was voted out in 2015 general elections. A protracted leadership crisishad left the party rudderless for several months.