The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, has said the Commission has introduced technical safeguards to prevent inaccurate results from being uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2027 general elections.

He also announced a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise scheduled for November 28, 2026, to test the Commission’s preparations.

Amupitan disclosed this on Thursday at Chatham House, London, during a high-level dialogue convened in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), with the theme, “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”

The Chairman, who spoke on preparations for the 2027 polls, urged Nigerians to trust the Commission to deliver free, fair and credible elections, citing operational improvements recorded in recent off-cycle polls.

He acknowledged that controversies surrounding the 2023 presidential election had created a trust deficit for INEC, which the Commission was still working to overcome.

“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 said.

Amupitan, who assumed office in October 2025, said the Commission had treated every subsequent election as a practical laboratory for identifying operational weaknesses and strengthening accreditation, voting and result management.

He cited the successful conduct of the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council polls, the Ekiti governorship election and 16 legislative by-elections.

“Why must Nigerians trust me? Nigerians must trust me because, number one, I have conducted off-cycle elections — and observers agree that the recent election in Osun State marked a clear improvement,” he said. “Every election is a lesson. The 2023 general election was a major lesson for Nigeria, and the Anambra election was another.”

He noted that Anambra and Osun had previously experienced prolonged and inconclusive governorship contests. He recalled that the 2021 Anambra governorship election took roughly five days to conclude, while targeted administrative reforms under his leadership enabled results in both states to be declared the day after voting.

On result management, Amupitan said the Commission’s post-2023 audit traced the most significant failures to collation centres rather than polling units.

To address this, he said INEC had built strict validation safeguards into its system to prevent inaccurate results or figures reflecting over-voting from being uploaded to IReV.

“We found that the core problem of election result management and declaration in Nigeria is not even at the polling unit — it is at the collation centres. 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 explained.

“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.”

Amupitan disclosed that although INEC had considered introducing entirely new electoral technology for 2027, it opted instead to upgrade and strengthen its existing infrastructure because of the tight operational timeline.

He said the Commission was constructing climate-controlled storage facilities across all states to address BVAS malfunctions linked to extreme heat and storage conditions during the 2023 elections.

It had also procured additional devices and reduced the maximum number of voters assigned to each BVAS machine from 1,250 to 850.

“On the 28th of this month, we will conduct a mock accreditation and voting exercise across all states of the federation to simulate the presidential election and verify that we have gotten both accreditation and electronic result transmission right,” he stated.

On financing, the Chairman confirmed that INEC had received a substantial portion of its 2027 election budget but was awaiting the release of the outstanding balance. He said part of the funds was earmarked for the recruitment and welfare of ad hoc personnel and that the Commission had received assurances that the money would be released before the end of November.

He also dismissed allegations linking him to a controversial X account, saying he had never operated an X account. He added that an independent forensic review had been obtained and the matter referred to the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector-General of Police.

Amupitan stressed that his past legal representation in political disputes would not compromise his impartiality, noting that he had acted strictly within his professional duties as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria before his appointment.

“My loyalty is solely to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral Act,” he affirmed.

On alleged voter register anomalies, including claims of an 85 per cent surge in registrants in a ward in Ebonyi State, he said the Commission had investigated and resolved the complaint In line with statutory procedures.

He urged youths to remain involved in the democratic process and guard against disinformation.

“This country belongs to young Nigerians, and they must not relent in working for the Nigeria they desire. Misinformation remains one of the greatest threats to our democracy,” he said.

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