2027: Voters’ register hits 103m – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said the number of registered voters in Nigeria has risen to more than 103 million ahead of the 2027 general elections.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a strategic workshop with media executives organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) in collaboration with the commission.

The workshop was themed, “Strengthening Democracy Through Partnership Among Editors, Civil Society and Electoral Institutions.”

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Amupitan said the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise attracted 10,772,421 new registrants, comprising 2,611,266 in the first phase, 4,121,835 in the second and 3,867,997 in the third phase.

He, however, said the figures remained subject to final verification following the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) exercise.

“Following the conclusion of our three-phase Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, which captured over 10.6 million new applicants, our Voter Register Department has completed the final Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) cleanup. Nigeria’s National Register of Voters is now over 103 million,” he said.

The INEC chairman said the commission had completed eight of the 14 major statutory activities contained in its timetable for the 2027 elections, describing preparations as having entered the “amber zone” as the election countdown intensifies.

He said the preliminary display of the voters’ register for claims and objections would take place from October 9 to 15, 2026.

Amupitan also announced that nationwide collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) would commence on Friday, October 9, with newly produced cards to be distributed to Local Government Area collection centres.

He said the commission had introduced printable PVC technology to reduce the waiting period for voters to obtain their cards.

According to him, the technology would also help eligible voters who lose their cards or have them stolen to avoid being disenfranchised.

The commission, Amupitan said, had acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines as part of efforts to strengthen its technological infrastructure ahead of the elections.

He said INEC deliberately chose to improve existing electoral technologies rather than introduce untested systems shortly before the 2027 elections.

According to him, the upgraded BVAS, enhanced electronic result management system and other technologies were being deployed to ensure that every valid vote counted and was seen to count.

He said the commission had also introduced an enhanced eEC8A form designed to digitise and cryptographically authenticate polling-unit results before their upload to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

Amupitan added that INEC was deploying artificial intelligence-driven systems to detect anomalies in database traffic and strengthen cybersecurity around the electoral process.

On vote-buying and illegal campaign financing, the INEC chairman said the commission was working with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) to monitor campaign spending.

He said a joint financial monitoring mechanism would track suspicious and illegal campaign expenditure, while surveillance around polling units would also be strengthened.

Amupitan warned politicians and their agents that violations of the Electoral Act would attract arrest and prosecution.

“Elections must be decided by the conviction of the voter, not the depth of a candidate’s pocket,” he said.

The INEC chairman also expressed concern over the spread of false information on social media, describing malicious disinformation as “citizenship terrorism through social media.”

He urged editors and journalists to verify information before publication, warning that false reports could suppress voter turnout, create panic and ultimately undermine credible elections.

Amupitan recalled instances where old photographs, manipulated images and fabricated reports had been presented as current election-related events.

He cited a false report during the Federal Capital Territory elections which claimed that members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had been killed, creating the impression that Abuja was engulfed in violence.

He said investigations later established that the report was false.

The chairman urged newsrooms to take “a second, a minute” to verify information before publication, stressing that sensationalism should not be allowed to undermine the electoral process.

He said INEC was particularly concerned about deepfakes, manipulated audio-visual materials, coordinated fake news and premature declarations of unofficial results.

Amupitan also warned against electoral violence, saying no political ambition was worth the loss of Nigerian lives.

He said the commission’s early-warning mechanism under the Inter-Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) was monitoring political violence, thuggery and inflammatory rhetoric ahead of the polls.

The chairman said INEC was also strengthening logistics and field operations, adding that readiness audits had been completed in the South-West and North-West geopolitical zones.

He said the remaining zones would undergo similar audits.

According to him, the audits covered state offices, storage facilities, security protocols and logistics, while early procurement and distribution of non-sensitive election materials had commenced.

He added that all electoral officers and temporary staff would be required to take an oath of neutrality under Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026.

He warned that the commission would maintain zero tolerance for partisanship, negligence and compromised ethical conduct among its personnel.

Earlier, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba, called for a credible and transparent electoral process that would ensure voters, rather than the courts, determine the outcome of elections.

Anaba said elections were not merely about casting ballots but about building citizens’ confidence that their votes would count and that institutions responsible for conducting elections would act fairly and professionally.

“Elections are not merely about casting ballots. They are about trust. They are about citizens believing that their votes will count, that the process will be transparent, and the institutions responsible for conducting elections will act fairly and professionally,” he said.

He expressed concern over the growing reliance on the courts to resolve election disputes, saying the electoral process should be strong enough to reflect the choices of voters.

Anaba added that democracy could not grow without a strong electoral body and a process that was not only fair and transparent but also seen by citizens to be so.

INEC National Commissioner, Mohammed Haruna, said the workshop was particularly important because the commission had conducted several off-cycle and bye-elections since Amupitan assumed office.

He listed the Anambra governorship election, Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections, Ekiti and Osun governorship elections and several legislative bye-elections among polls conducted under the present commission.

Haruna said INEC had also monitored the primaries of all 22 registered political parties participating in the 2027 electoral process, including processes arising from court-ordered creation of new state constituencies.

Executive Director of the Centre for Media and Society, Akin Akingbulu, called for stronger verification mechanisms in newsrooms and greater transparency from INEC.

Akingbulu said verification was a two-way process, arguing that newsrooms could not properly verify information that institutions failed to disclose.

He warned against deepfakes, fabricated campaign materials and other forms of manipulated content, saying they could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.

The Executive Director of the International Press Centre, Lanre Arogundade, stressed the need for timely and transparent communication from INEC.

Arogundade said information gaps created opportunities for speculation, while silence could leave a vacuum that false information would quickly occupy.

He called for a healthy relationship between INEC and the media based on access, transparency and mutual responsibility, without compromising editorial independence or the media’s watchdog role.

Chief Press Secretary to the INEC chairman, Adedayo Oketola, said editors were the chief gatekeepers of electoral information and that direct engagement with newsrooms had become a priority for the commission.

He said the workshop was aimed at rebuilding institutional trust through open dialogue, combating information disorder through fact verification and promoting shared responsibility for credible elections.

In her goodwill message, INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, said the engagement would help align media leadership with the commission’s operational roadmap.

“We’re in the eye of the storm a lot of the times these days, and so it’s important that we are on the same page,” she said.

She added that disinformation and misinformation were not helping efforts to increase citizen participation and urged editors to provide timely and accurate information.