ABUJA — Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will hold a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise on 28 November to test its technology ahead of the 2027 general elections, its chairman has said. The announcement comes as critics at home and abroad step up pressure on the commission over the voter register and political violence.
What INEC says
Speaking at Chatham House in London on Thursday, INEC chairman Joash Amupitan said the exercise would “simulate the presidential election and verify that we have gotten both accreditation and electronic result transmission right,” BusinessDay reported.
He said INEC had added a technical safeguard so that “if a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all,” referring to its online Result Viewing Portal. He said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) had been upgraded, climate-controlled storage was being built, and the maximum number of voters per device had been cut from 1,250 to 850.
Amupitan acknowledged that the 2023 election left “a significant trust deficit for INEC,” and cited off-cycle polls in Anambra, Osun, Ekiti and the FCT as evidence of improvement. He said INEC had received much of its 2027 budget but was awaiting the balance, including funds for ad hoc staff. The commission said on 9 November it had removed 1,608,660 invalid registrations and identified 54 people in 10 states for possible disciplinary action or prosecution, Legit.ng reported.
What critics say
Outside Chatham House, a group of demonstrators surrounded Amupitan’s vehicle and called for his resignation. They accused INEC of favouring the ruling All Progressives Congress and cited alleged duplicate entries, suspected AI-generated photographs and questionable polling units in the preliminary register, Sahara Reporters reported. Those specific claims have not been independently verified.
UK-based lawyer Dayo Babalola, who said he attended the event, disputed that account, describing the protesters as 10 to 15 people who did not represent the diaspora and alleging, without naming anyone, that a party chieftain paid them, The Guardian reported. The pro-Tinubu group Working People United called the protest “undemocratic.”
On Saturday INEC dismissed a viral claim that Amupitan was about to resign as “false, fabricated and misleading,” Daily Post reported.
Separately, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) gave INEC seven days to obtain police case files and prosecute suspects in reported campaign attacks, citing incidents involving NDC, PDP, ADC and AAC candidates since campaigns opened on 19 August. It said it would sue if INEC did not act, The Guardian reported. INEC had not publicly responded to the letter at the time of publication.
What it means for African readers
Presidential and National Assembly elections are set for 16 January 2027, with governorship polls on 6 February. The 28 November mock exercise is the clearest public test of INEC’s technology before then, and observers will watch how quickly results reach IReV. For businesses and investors, a credible process reduces policy and currency risk around the transition; disputes over the register could do the opposite.
