The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has urged Nigerians to give the commission another chance to rebuild public confidence, insisting that lessons learnt from the controversial 2023 general election and improvements in subsequent polls have positioned it to deliver credible elections in 2027.
Amupitan made the appeal on Thursday, November 12, 2026, during a high-level dialogue at Chatham House, London, organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), under the theme, “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”
His appeal comes amid protests at the London venue, reflecting the lingering public distrust and controversies surrounding Nigeria’s electoral process, particularly the conduct and management of the 2023 presidential election.
Acknowledging the damage caused by the 2023 election to INEC’s reputation, the chairman admitted that the commission had yet to fully recover from the significant loss of public confidence.
“First and foremost, let me speak about what happened in 2023, which resulted in a significant trust deficit for INEC—damage so large that the Commission has not yet fully recovered from it,” he said.
However, he argued that his leadership, which began in October 2025, had used subsequent off-cycle elections as opportunities to identify operational shortcomings and strengthen the electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Responding to concerns over why Nigerians should trust him and the commission, Amupitan pointed to what he described as measurable improvements in the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council polls, Ekiti governorship election and 16 legislative by-elections.
According to him, the recent elections demonstrated that INEC was learning from past mistakes and making progress in the conduct of elections.
“Why must Nigerians trust me? Nigerians must trust me because, number one, I have conducted off-cycle elections—and observers agree that the recent election in Osun State marked a clear improvement,” he said.
He described every election as a learning opportunity, noting that the 2023 general election and the subsequent Anambra poll had provided important lessons for the commission.
Amupitan recalled that Anambra and Osun states had previously experienced prolonged and inconclusive governorship elections, citing the 2021 Anambra election, which took about five days to conclude.
He said, however, that under the current reforms, results in both states were declared the day after voting, describing the development as evidence of improved electoral management.
Beyond the conduct of elections, the INEC chairman identified insecurity, logistics and result management as the three major challenges the commission was prioritising ahead of 2027.
On the controversies surrounding electronic transmission and result management in 2023, Amupitan said a post-election assessment by the commission revealed that some of the most serious failures occurred at collation centres rather than polling units.
He disclosed that INEC had consequently introduced stricter technical validation measures to prevent inaccurate results and figures reflecting over-voting from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
“We found that the core problem of election result management and declaration in Nigeria is not even at the polling unit—it is at the collation centres,” he explained.
“In 2023, there were instances of inaccurate results or results with over-voting being uploaded onto IReV. We have now devised a technical safeguard: if a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all.”
He added that the new safeguards would ensure that results displayed on the portal had passed the commission’s validation process, thereby strengthening transparency and public confidence in the outcome of elections.
“The moment a result appears on IReV, citizens can trust what they see. By eliminating inconsistencies at the source, collation will become a transparent formality,” he said.
The INEC chairman also explained that the commission had considered introducing an entirely new electoral technology for the 2027 elections but opted to upgrade its existing infrastructure because of the limited time available before the polls.
Addressing concerns over the malfunctioning of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) during the 2023 elections, which he attributed partly to extreme heat and poor storage conditions, Amupitan said the commission was constructing climate-controlled storage facilities across the states.
He further disclosed that INEC had procured additional BVAS devices and reduced the maximum number of voters assigned to each machine from 1,250 to 850 to improve efficiency and minimise technical disruptions.
As part of preparations for the 2027 general elections, the commission also announced November 28, 2026, for a nationwide mock accreditation exercise to test its systems and identify possible technical challenges ahead of the polls.
The INEC chairman maintained that the reforms, operational improvements and lessons from recent elections would strengthen the commission’s capacity to conduct credible polls in 2027.
However, with the controversies of 2023 still fresh and public scrutiny of the electoral umpire heightened, the success of the proposed reforms will ultimately depend not only on INEC’s assurances but also on their transparent implementation and the confidence Nigerians have in the electoral process.
