The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Joash Amupitan, has assured Nigerians that the 2027 general election will be credible and transparent, promising to address past challenges and improve the conduct of polls nationwide.
Speaking on Sunday at the Citizens’ Townhall on the 2026 Electoral Act in Abuja, Amupitan expressed confidence that the commission’s preparations would ensure smooth and reliable elections.
“By the grace of God, the 2027 election will be the best Nigeria has ever had. The electorate of 2027 is more aware and understands the direct correlation between elections and national development.
“We want a process that guarantees the legitimacy and confidence people want to see in their system. When people trust INEC and their leaders, the country will move forward,” he stated.
Addressing concerns about electronic result transmission, the INEC boss said the commission is taking concrete steps to prevent the technical glitches that affected the 2023 presidential election.
“So result management and logistics are two basic issues that, from our own end, we’re trying to see how best we’re able to manage them very well, so as to enhance the transparency and credibility of the system.
“The glitch is eliminated; by God’s grace, it will not surface in Nigeria,” he added.
He added that legal provisions allowing alternative collation methods are safety measures, not expectations of failure.
“It is just a proviso, a safety. If it fails, results must still be transmitted. But our determination is that it will not fail,” Amupitan said.
Amupitan acknowledged that while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System was tested in off-cycle elections before 2023, the scale of the presidential election exposed gaps in nationwide stress-testing.
To address this, INEC plans a mock nationwide presidential exercise ahead of 2027 to ensure the system can handle large-scale elections.
He also highlighted logistics and infrastructure readiness as critical to election success, noting that challenges often stem from network availability and operational logistics, rather than the electronic transmission system itself.
“We will try to give Nigerians a near-perfect election,” Amupitan stated.
Credit: punchng.com
