The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, has said trust in elections is earned through operational fidelity and not through public relations.
Amupitan stated this on Thursday, 8th October, 2026 in Lagos while delivering the keynote address at the 10th Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, themed “2027 Elections- Trust, Transparency and Shared Responsibilities.”
The INEC Chairman announced that the Commission has fixed the 2027 General Election cycle with Presidential and National Assembly Elections scheduled for Saturday, 16th January, 2027, followed by Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections on Saturday, 6th February, 2027.
He said as of the date of the conference, the Commission is 98 days away from the Presidential election and has made extensive progress in executing core milestones in its Timetable.
Amupitan said on 26th February, 2026, the Commission issued the Revised Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Elections, establishing 14 critical statutory activities, and is currently advancing toward the conclusion of the ninth critical activity.
He said the master timetable has been converted into an integrated framework across 23 Headquarters Departments and Directorates, 36 State Offices and the FCT, and 774 Local Government Area Offices across over 176,000 polling units.
On voter registration, the Chairman said INEC conducted a three-phase Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise in compliance with Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2026.
He said Phase I from 25th August to 10th December, 2025 captured 2,611,266 new voters, Phase II from 5th January to 17th April, 2026 captured 4,121,835 new voters, and Phase III from 11th May to 26th July, 2026 captured 3,867,997 new voters.
He disclosed that Nigeria’s National Register of Voters is now at 103 million registered citizens, following completion of the public display of the Preliminary Register of Voters and ongoing synchronization through the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, to eliminate duplicate registrations.
Amupitan said the nationwide collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards, PVCs, using the newly introduced Printable PVC technology will officially commence on Friday, 9th October, 2026, at designated Local Government offices and Registration Area centers.
On technology, he said the Commission has upgraded the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, with hardware optimisation, extended battery calibration and software hardening, and has embarked on a nationwide BVAS audit and procurement of additional devices.
He said the enhanced eEC8A protocol digitises polling unit result sheets directly at the polling unit after counting, cryptographically signed and transmitted simultaneously to the public view portal to eliminate manual alteration at intermediate collation points, building on deployments in recent off-cycle elections in the FCT, Ekiti, and Osun.
He added that INEC has embedded automated AI data-auditing tools and multi-layered firewalls in partnership with Google and Microsoft to shield databases against cyber intrusions and distributed denial-of-service attacks.
On logistics, Amupitan said procurement and physical delivery of non-sensitive electoral materials to all 36 State Offices and the FCT have commenced, while the Commission has procured and commenced distribution of brand-new operational pick-up vehicles to State Offices and LGAs to resolve transportation bottlenecks in difficult terrains, riverine areas and remote border settlements.
On readiness assessments, he said the Commission has instituted Zonal Readiness Assessment and Staff Engagement programme across six geopolitical zones, and has completed assessments in the South-West and North-West zones.
He said pursuant to Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026, every official must take a binding oath of loyalty and absolute neutrality, warning that partisanship will be met with immediate dismissal and statutory prosecution.
He said the Commission operationalised the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, CEMBSS, on 1st January, 2026, followed by a 150% increase in State Office operational overheads on 1st July, 2026.
The INEC Chairman also condoled with GOCOP on the passing of its former President and Publisher of The Eagle Online, Mr. Dotun Oladipo, describing him as a patriot and courageous champion of ethical online publishing.
