By Abiodun Folarin
WorldStage– The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC,) has established an artificial intelligence (AI) unit to monitor digital threats, detect deepfakes and combat electoral misinformation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, organised in collaboration with Yiaga Africa.
Speaking on the theme, “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” Amupitan said the Commission was strengthening its capacity to ensure that AI supports election administration without undermining voters’ freedom to make informed choices.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” he said, stressing that the power to choose Nigeria’s leaders belonged exclusively to citizens.
He warned that generative AI had made it easier and cheaper to produce convincing fake videos and audio recordings capable of misleading voters, impersonating election officials and spreading false information about candidates and electoral procedures.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” Amupitan said.
He cautioned that malicious actors could circulate fabricated announcements of candidate withdrawals, election postponements and inflammatory ethnic or religious statements, potentially undermining public confidence in the electoral process.
The INEC chairman said the Commission had established an AI unit within its ICT Directorate, equipped with digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics capabilities to identify threats targeting elections.
He added that no critical electoral decision, result collation, voter accreditation or candidate qualification would be fully automated or delegated to an autonomous system.
According to him, all AI tools deployed for logistics, database management and operational support would undergo rigorous audits to ensure transparency, fairness and security, while human accountability, statutory oversight and judicial review would remain central to electoral decisions.
Amupitan also disclosed that INEC was developing a digital strategy to monitor the information environment and collaborating with technology platforms to rapidly debunk and label AI-generated content relating to elections.
Despite the risks, he said AI could improve election logistics, electoral integrity and voter participation.
He explained that geospatial analytics could help the Commission deploy personnel, vehicles, boats and sensitive materials to 176,846 polling units by analysing traffic conditions, weather forecasts, road networks and security incidents.
AI could also support parallel statistical audits of polling unit result sheets uploaded through the INEC Election Result Viewing Portal’s eEC8A system, flagging mathematical inconsistencies and other irregularities for administrative review.
He said AI-enhanced biometric identification systems were accelerating the detection of duplicate facial and fingerprint records in the National Register of Voters, which contains more than 103 million records.
The technology could also translate voter education materials into indigenous languages, improve accessibility for persons with disabilities and strengthen cybersecurity for INEC’s digital platforms.
Amupitan called on technology companies, including Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram, to restrict unlabelled synthetic media impersonating election officials, candidates and security personnel, enforce disclaimers on political advertisements and curb micro-targeting based on ethnicity, religion and local origin.
He also proposed expanding an Electoral Information Integrity Coalition involving INEC, civil society organisations, media bodies, fact-checkers and telecommunications operators to provide early warnings against viral AI-generated falsehoods.
Political parties and candidates were urged to adopt an Ethical AI Code of Conduct prohibiting deepfakes, synthetic impersonation, deceptive political advertisements and automated bot networks.
The chairman further called on the media to establish digital forensic desks, security agencies to strengthen cybercrime investigation capabilities and the judiciary to prepare for disputes involving AI-generated evidence.
He said the Commission had digitised candidate nominations, processing more than 15,000 nominations across 22 political parties, while additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices had been procured, with consignments already being received.
He added that 10 of the 14 major operational milestones for the 2027 elections had been completed.
The two-day forum was attended by the Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States Network of Electoral Commissions and Chairman of the Senegal Electoral Commission, Abdoulaye Sylla, alongside election officials, political party representatives, civil society organisations, technology firms and the media.
INEC explains omission of governorship candidates from final list
In a separate development, INEC has attributed the exclusion of some candidates from the final list for the 2027 governorship elections to a Supreme Court judgment affirming the mandatory requirement for political parties to submit their membership registers before conducting valid primaries.
The Commission’s National Commissioner and Chairman of the Information and Voter Education Committee, Mohammed Kudu Haruna, said in a statement issued on Tuesday that the decision followed the Supreme Court’s judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party, Appeal No. SC/CV/495/2026, delivered on September 24, 2026.
According to Haruna, the apex court upheld the constitutionality of Section 77(5)–(7) of the Electoral Act, 2026, which requires political parties to submit their membership registers to INEC.
He said the court also upheld the Commission’s timetable requiring parties to submit their registers between April 21 and May 10, 2026.
Haruna explained that parties that failed to comply with the requirement were ineligible to sponsor candidates in the governorship elections, prompting their exclusion from the final list.
He said INEC acted in accordance with Section 287(1) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, which requires compliance with decisions of superior courts.
The commissioner noted that the final lists of presidential and National Assembly candidates had been published on September 12, before the Supreme Court judgment was delivered.
He reminded political parties that Section 32(2) of the Electoral Act, 2026, provides a 14-day window from publication for parties to notify the Commission if they believe a candidate was wrongly omitted.
According to him, the deadline for such notifications is October 24, 2026.
Haruna reaffirmed INEC’s commitment to transparency, the rule of law and the credibility of the electoral process.
