Dare Babalola
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Joash Amupitan, has given assurances that the 2027 general election will be conducted in a credible and transparent manner, with commitments to address previous challenges and improve the overall conduct of polls nationwide.
During his address at the Citizens’ Townhall on the 2026 Electoral Act in Abuja on Sunday, the INEC boss expressed confidence that the commission’s preparatory efforts would facilitate the conduct of smooth and reliable elections.
“By the grace of God, the 2027 election will be the best Nigeria has ever had. The electorate of 2027 is more aware and understands the direct correlation between elections and national development.
“We want a process that guarantees the legitimacy and confidence people want to see in their system. When people trust INEC and their leaders, the country will move forward,” he stated.
Addressing concerns regarding the electronic transmission of results, the INEC Chairman stated that the commission is undertaking concrete measures to mitigate the technical issues that impacted the 2023 presidential election.
“So result management and logistics are two basic issues that, from our own end, we’re trying to see how best we’re able to manage them very well, so as to enhance the transparency and credibility of the system.
“The glitch is eliminated; by God’s grace, it will not surface in Nigeria,” he added.
He added that legal provisions allowing alternative collation methods are safety measures, not expectations of failure.
“It is just a proviso, a safety. If it fails, results must still be transmitted. But our determination is that it will not fail,” Amupitan said.
Amupitan acknowledged that while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System was tested in off-cycle elections before 2023, the scale of the presidential election exposed gaps in nationwide stress-testing.
To address this, INEC plans a mock nationwide presidential exercise ahead of 2027 to ensure the system can handle large-scale elections.
He also highlighted logistics and infrastructure readiness as critical to election success, noting that challenges often stem from network availability and operational logistics, rather than the electronic transmission system itself.
“We will try to give Nigerians a near-perfect election,” Amupitan stated.
