2027: INEC Announces Major Overhaul Of Election Mgt, Begins Nationwide Test November 28

…Admits 2023 credibility crisis still haunts commission

BY OUR ABUJA CORRESPONDENT

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced a major overhaul of its election result management system ahead of the 2027 general elections, declaring that results containing over-voting or inaccuracies will be blocked from appearing on its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

In a move apparently designed to prevent a repeat of the controversies that trailed the 2023 presidential election, the Commission has also scheduled a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise for November 28 to test its upgraded electoral technology before the country goes to the polls.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, announced the measures on Thursday at Chatham House, London, where he acknowledged that the 2023 general election inflicted such serious damage on the Commission’s credibility that it had yet to fully recover.

The new measures represent one of INEC’s most significant attempts to address public concerns over the credibility of electronic result transmission, BVAS performance and discrepancies between polling unit results and figures emerging from collation centres.

Amupitan disclosed that the Commission’s post-2023 investigation identified collation centres as the major source of result management failures, prompting the introduction of new technological validation mechanisms to prevent questionable figures from entering the electronic results system.

Under the new arrangement, results containing inaccuracies or figures reflecting over-voting will be rejected by the system and prevented from being uploaded to IReV.

The INEC chairman said the safeguards were specifically designed to eliminate the discrepancies that undermined confidence in the 2023 elections.
“In 2023, there were instances of inaccurate results or results with over-voting being uploaded onto IReV. We have now devised a technical safeguard: if a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all,” he declared.

He added: “The moment a result appears on IReV, citizens can trust what they see. By eliminating inconsistencies at the source, collation will become a transparent formality.”

But in what could become a critical test of the Commission’s assurances, Amupitan announced November 28 for a nationwide mock election exercise to determine whether the upgraded systems can withstand the operational demands of the 2027 presidential election.

The exercise, to be conducted across the federation, will test voter accreditation and electronic transmission of results, two major areas that generated controversy during the 2023 general elections.

Beyond result transmission, INEC is also moving to address the BVAS challenges that disrupted accreditation in some polling units during previous elections.

Amupitan disclosed that the Commission had reduced the maximum number of registered voters assigned to each BVAS machine from 1,250 to 850, representing a reduction of 400 voters per device.

He said additional machines had been procured, while polling units with more than 850 registered voters would receive multiple devices to ease pressure during accreditation.

The Commission is also constructing climate-controlled storage facilities across the states to prevent the equipment failures associated with extreme temperatures and inadequate storage conditions during the 2023 elections.

The chairman, however, admitted that the biggest obstacle confronting the Commission was not technology alone but the enormous credibility deficit inherited from the 2023 elections.

“First and foremost, let me speak about what happened in 2023, which resulted in a significant trust deficit for INEC—damage so large that the Commission has not yet fully recovered from it,” he acknowledged.

Seeking to demonstrate that the Commission had made progress, Amupitan cited the recent governorship elections in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti, the FCT Area Council elections and 16 legislative by-elections as evidence of improvements in its electoral administration.

He particularly pointed to the reduction in the time required to conclude governorship elections in Anambra and Osun, where results were declared the day after voting, unlike previous exercises that experienced prolonged delays.

On funding, the INEC chairman disclosed that the Commission had received a substantial portion of its 2027 election budget but was still awaiting the outstanding balance.

He said the Federal Government had assured the Commission that the outstanding funds, part of which would finance the recruitment and welfare of ad hoc election personnel, would be released before the end of November.

Amupitan also confronted questions about his political neutrality, dismissing allegations linking his telephone number to a controversial X account and insisting that he had never operated an account on the platform.

He said an independent forensic review had been obtained and the matter referred to the Department of State Services and the Inspector-General of Police for investigation.

Reaffirming his commitment to impartiality, he declared that his loyalty was to the Constitution and the Electoral Act.

The INEC chairman further dismissed allegations of irregularities in the voters’ register involving an alleged 85 per cent increase in registrants in a ward in Ebonyi State, saying the complaint had been investigated and resolved under the law.

He urged Nigerians, particularly young people, to protect the electoral process against misinformation and digital manipulation as political activities intensify ahead of the 2027 elections.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on February 6.