The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has deepened its use of technology to monitor election preparations and address logistics challenges ahead of the January 16 and February 6, 2027, general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this during a workshop organized by the commission in Lagos for Administrative Secretaries from across the country. He described the new technology as a “real-time readiness tracker”, designed to provide simultaneous visibility into election preparations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
He said the innovation was a first-of-its-kind system that would enable the commission to monitor operational activities across the country more effectively.
According to Amupitan, the commission previously lacked a dedicated and uniform mechanism for tracking the operational responsibilities of Administrative Secretaries.
He said the new tracker would bridge that institutional gap by providing Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs, Supervising National Commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission and INEC headquarters with instant information on the level of preparedness in each state.
The system will monitor areas including the distribution of election materials, training of ad-hoc personnel and other state-level preparations.
Amupitan said the innovation was intended to replace “reactive panic with proactive management” and would remain useful beyond the 2027 elections.
He explained that the system would also serve as a permanent onboarding framework for future generations of Administrative Secretaries.
The chairman said the workshop would produce a standardized, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template.
The template will be linked directly to the commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre, EMSC, dashboard and the Election Project Plan, EPP.
He said the approach would ensure that all state offices work from a common operational framework and allow headquarters to identify potential challenges before they affect the electoral process.
The initiative is particularly significant because ineffective distribution of election materials and other logistical difficulties have historically affected the conduct of national elections.
Amupitan said INEC was building on what he described as improvements recorded during recent off-cycle elections conducted under his leadership.
The commission has conducted governorship elections in Anambra, Ekiti and Osun states, as well as National Assembly and state Houses of Assembly by-elections and FCT council polls.
He said the exercises demonstrated the commission’s capacity for operational discipline, technical competence and administrative integrity.
The January 16 and February 6, 2027, general elections will, however, be the first nationwide general elections to be supervised by Amupitan since his appointment as INEC chairman.
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The INEC chairman warned officials involved in the 2027 elections against manipulating results, taking shortcuts or interfering with electoral processes. He said there would be consequences for staff members found guilty of infractions.
According to him, the real measure of electoral success would not be determined in meeting rooms in Abuja but at the Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units where election officials interact directly with voters and manage the process.
He said conducting elections simultaneously across the 36 states and the FCT would require a higher standard of performance than a single-state election.
Amupitan also reiterated INEC’s zero tolerance for partisan conduct and administrative negligence among its personnel.
He noted that Section 26 of the Electoral Act requires Electoral Officers, Presiding Officers, Returning Officers and security personnel involved in elections to take an oath of neutrality.
The chairman said the commission was also reviewing its Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, logistics and materials management, electoral technology, ad-hoc staff optimization and financial compliance as part of preparations for the elections.
He said the CVR exercise conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026 recorded a cumulative 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS verification.
During the third phase, INEC introduced an Online Registration Portal to make registration more accessible to eligible voters.
The commission also introduced a Printable Permanent Voter’s Card, PVC, technology, which was first deployed during the Osun State election.
Amupitan said the National Register of Voters was approaching the 100 million marks, assuring Nigerians that no eligible voter would be disenfranchised because of logistical problems associated with PVC distribution.
Amupitan said INEC was refining its Result Management Systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to improve the verifiability of election results.
The system is intended to strengthen the tracking and verification of results from the polling unit through the various stages of collation to the national collation centre.
He said the commission would continue to deploy technology to improve transparency and strengthen public confidence in the electoral process.
The INEC chairman identified voter apathy, a lingering trust deficit, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation as some of the major challenges facing the commission.
He said the conduct and competence of field officers remained INEC’s strongest defense against false narratives and doubts surrounding the electoral process.
Amupitan said the commission would continue to improve voter registration and make PVC collection more seamless ahead of the 2027 elections.
The chairman also disclosed that the commission was finalizing a new salary and welfare package for its staff, members and Resident Electoral Commissioners.
He said the new structure includes the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, which took effect from January 1.
He added that overhead allocations to state offices had increased by 150 per cent with effect from July 1.
The Lagos workshop marked the beginning of a six-zone national tour aimed at assessing INEC’s operational preparedness ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan said the zonal engagement represented a departure from more than two decades of administrative practice in which zonal preparations were handled largely through headquarters directorates.
The commission will use the engagements to assess operational readiness and identify challenges that could affect the smooth conduct of the elections.
Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Ayobami Salami, said the state was honored to host the first edition of the zonal engagement.
Salami said electoral credibility was built through early preparation, competent personnel and effective coordination.
He described the Southwest as a diverse electoral environment requiring readiness assessments that examine the resilience of logistics, reliability of technology and strength of stakeholder engagement across the six states.
Secretary to the Commission, Mrs. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the workshop would ensure that national and state offices operate from the same Election Project Plan.
She said Administrative Secretaries would also receive updated knowledge of new policies, technology and administrative procedures.
According to her, each state delegation is expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad-hoc recruitment and deployment plan, a stakeholder engagement plan for the next three months and the new tracker template.
The workshop was organized under the auspices of the Office of the Secretary to the Commission with support from DAI-EUSDGN.
It brought together National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, the Director-General of the Electoral Institute, directors from INEC headquarters and Administrative Secretaries from the 36 states and the FCT.
INEC Director of Planning and Monitoring, Mrs. Helen Ajayi, said the interactive meeting was designed around four major objectives.
She said these included assessing the preparedness of Southwest states through situation reports on logistics, ad-hoc staff recruitment, technology, security, training, voter education and stakeholder engagement; identifying operational and logistical challenges; providing updates on voter registration, PVC collection and ICT deployment; and aligning personnel with INEC’s Code of Conduct and operational and logistics readiness requirements.
The Nation
