The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has raised concerns over key challenges that could affect preparations for Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, including delays in the release of funds allocated for electoral technology and operations.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, also warned that the rapid growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered disinformation, combined with public distrust stemming from technological challenges experienced during the 2023 elections, could threaten the credibility of the 2027 polls.
Amupitan, who was represented by National Commissioner Sani Adam, spoke in Abuja at the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria (ACSPN).
He said INEC was conducting a comprehensive review of its electoral technology infrastructure and considering a mock presidential election to test accreditation, result transmission and result-viewing systems under conditions similar to election day.
Amupitan disclosed that the commission had proposed a substantial budget for the 2027 general elections, including significant funding for technology, election operations and the replacement of accreditation devices that were lost or damaged during the previous electoral cycle.
However, he said the full funds had yet to be released.
“I should also be candid about the resourcing reality behind these ambitions. INEC has proposed a substantial budget for the 2027 general election, with significant allocations set aside specifically for technology and election operations, including the procurement of new accreditation devices to replace those lost or damaged during the last cycle.
“Full release of these funds is still being awaited, yet preparations continue,” he said.
Despite the funding situation, the commission’s Information and Communications Technology team has already begun discussions with manufacturers over the procurement of new devices.
Amupitan added that preparations for the technology audit and proposed mock election were also continuing alongside the budget process.
The INEC chairman also addressed concerns surrounding the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2023 general elections.
He explained that although the technologies were introduced to improve transparency and strengthen public confidence in elections, difficulties experienced during the 2023 polls showed that technological failures could themselves become a source of distrust.
“2023 also taught us, painfully and publicly, that the same portal whose purpose was to build trust can, when it falters under load or when uploads are delayed, become the very evidence cited to question that trust,” he said.
Amupitan said the commission would therefore take a more rigorous approach to its electoral technology ahead of 2027 rather than simply redeploying existing systems.
“It is why, as we look toward 2027, the commission is not simply reinstalling the same systems and hoping for a smoother outcome.
“We are pursuing a more rigorous path: a comprehensive audit of our electoral technology systems, covering system redundancy, penetration testing and disaster recovery planning, so that we understand our vulnerabilities before an election exposes them rather than after,” he said.
As part of the exercise, INEC is considering a mock presidential election designed to test its systems under conditions that closely replicate the demands of the actual election.
“We are also exploring the conduct of a mock presidential election ahead of 2027, a full test-run of accreditation, transmission and results viewing under conditions that mirror election day as closely as possible,” Amupitan disclosed.
“These are not cosmetic gestures. They are a direct answer to the concerns raised about the reliability of our technology in 2023, and a signal that the commission intends to arrive at the next general election having stress-tested its own credibility before Nigerians are asked to stake theirs on it.”
Beyond the reliability of electoral technology, Amupitan warned that the information environment surrounding the election could pose an equally serious challenge.
He stressed that even if INEC’s technology performs perfectly on election day, that alone would not guarantee that Nigerians would accept the results.
“But even a flawless technical performance on election day will not, by itself, protect the integrity of an election in 2027. The threat has migrated. It has moved from the accreditation machine to the information ecosystem that surrounds it,” he warned.
According to him, generative AI has made it easier and cheaper to create convincing fake videos, voices and images that could be used to manipulate voters and create confusion during the election.
He cited possible scenarios involving fabricated election results, cloned voices of political candidates and fake images of already-marked ballot papers.
“A synthetic clip of an election official announcing a result that was never announced, a cloned voice attributed to a candidate conceding a race that is still open, a fabricated image of ballot papers already marked before polls open — these are no longer hypothetical scenarios reserved for science fiction panels,” he warned.
Amupitan said one of the most worrying aspects of AI-generated misinformation was the speed with which fabricated content could reach large audiences.
“A rumour once needed a marketplace, a newspaper column or a radio broadcast to travel,” he said, noting that AI-generated misinformation could now spread nationally within hours.
He warned that sustained exposure to false information could weaken voters’ ability to establish a shared understanding of what actually happened during an election.
“There is instead a slow erosion of the common ground on which we ask over ninety million registered voters to trust the same declared result,” he said.
The INEC chairman therefore argued that electoral technology and public communication must now be treated as interconnected elements of election security.
“The security of our servers and the credibility of our public messaging are now the same problem viewed from different angles.
“A technically secure system that is poorly explained invites suspicion. A well-explained process running on an insecure or untested system invites disaster,” he said.
To address the threat, Amupitan said INEC would strengthen its digital monitoring and rapid-response mechanisms to identify false claims about the electoral process and provide timely clarification.
He said the commission could no longer afford to wait several days before responding to misinformation capable of spreading nationwide within hours.
“In an environment where a fabricated claim can circulate nationally within hours, an election management body that takes days to issue a clarification has effectively conceded the narrative before it has spoken,” he warned.
The commission’s preparations now centre on two major areas.
First, INEC must ensure that BVAS, IReV and other electoral infrastructure are reliable enough to function simultaneously when millions of voters participate across the country.
Second, it must prepare for an increasingly sophisticated information environment in which AI can be used to manufacture realistic but completely false content.
Amupitan’s warning suggests that the credibility of the 2027 election will depend not only on whether INEC’s machines work, but also on whether Nigerians can distinguish genuine electoral information from convincing falsehoods.
For the commission, the challenge is therefore becoming broader: build technology that voters can trust, secure the systems against failure, and communicate quickly enough to prevent misinformation from defining the election narrative.
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