Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission has begun deploying artificial intelligence tools to help detect discrepancies in election result records as it prepares for the 2027 general elections, expanding the role of technology in one of Africa’s largest electoral systems.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan announced the initiative Thursday while addressing the Global Conference on Responsible AI and Elections in Ottawa, Canada. He said the technology would support an “intelligent results management” process intended to identify possible errors or inconsistencies before they undermine confidence in election results.
Amupitan stressed that artificial intelligence would not be allowed to make electoral decisions independently. Election officials would remain responsible for reviewing information flagged by the system and making final decisions. “AI must strengthen electoral integrity, improve public service, and always remain under human control,” he said.
The commission has created an Artificial Intelligence Division within its information technology department and developed a roadmap for gradually introducing the technology. An AI governance framework is also undergoing internal approval, while INEC has begun training staff on the opportunities and risks associated with the technology.
The move comes as Nigeria continues to confront questions about the accuracy, transmission and collation of election results. INEC already uses the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, known as BVAS, to authenticate voters and the INEC Result Viewing Portal, or IReV, to make polling unit result sheets available online. The commission also uses biometric technology to identify duplicate voter registrations.
Concerns over electronic result management became particularly prominent after the 2023 general election, when delays and technical problems affected the uploading of some presidential election results to IReV. INEC has since said it learned from those problems and strengthened its systems ahead of the 2027 elections.
The commission has already introduced additional checks into its result-management process. In February, Amupitan said BVAS could perform validation checks to ensure that votes entered do not exceed the number of accredited voters, that figures are mathematically consistent and that possible over-voting is flagged. INEC said the safeguards had been tested during recent elections.
Technology professionals have welcomed further modernization but say stronger safeguards will be necessary. Information Technology Association of Nigeria President Emmanuel Ayoola said combining AI with technologies such as blockchain could help address weaknesses in result transmission, auditing and verification. He argued that the problems seen in 2023 were largely connected to transmission and logistics rather than a failure of Nigeria’s entire electoral technology system.
James Agada, president of the Institute of Software Practitioners of Nigeria, has also urged authorities to ensure electronically generated election records can be independently verified and used as reliable evidence when election disputes reach the courts. The debate highlights a broader concern: introducing more technology will not automatically increase public confidence unless voters, political parties and observers can understand how the systems work and how disputed results are reviewed.
Nigeria’s electoral system operates on a vast scale. INEC says the country has more than 93 million registered voters, roughly 180,000 polling units and about 185,000 BVAS devices, making the management and verification of millions of electoral records a major logistical challenge.
The 2027 elections will provide a major test of whether INEC can use new technology without creating new concerns about transparency, cybersecurity or accountability. The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for Feb. 20, 2027, followed by governorship and state assembly elections on March
