By Abiodun Folarin
WorldStage– The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is set to deploy a real-time election readiness tracker across Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, in a major overhaul of its operational monitoring ahead of the 2027 General Election.
The new system, which will provide the Commission’s leadership with instant visibility into state-level preparations, is designed to replace fragmented reporting and last-minute responses with a standardised, nationwide mechanism for monitoring logistics, personnel, technology and other election-readiness indicators.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos as the Commission commenced a six-zone national readiness tour and a two-day strategic workshop for Administrative Secretaries.
Amupitan said the initiative would produce a standardised Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template linked directly to the Commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) dashboard and Election Project Plan (EPP).
According to him, the tracker will enable Resident Electoral Commissioners, supervising National Commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission and headquarters officials to monitor material distribution, ad-hoc staff training and other state-level preparations in real time.
He described the initiative as a response to a longstanding institutional gap in the monitoring of the operational responsibilities of Administrative Secretaries.
The INEC chairman said the tracker would not be limited to the 2027 election, but would serve as a permanent operational and onboarding framework for future Administrative Secretaries.
The development comes as the national voter register approaches the 100 million mark, with INEC reporting that 10,772,421 new voters were captured during the three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) conducted between August 2025 and July 2026.
Amupitan said the figures remained subject to verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), while assuring that the Commission would continue to work to ensure that eligible Nigerians were not disenfranchised because of logistical challenges in obtaining Permanent Voter’s Cards (PVCs).
He also disclosed that the third phase of the CVR introduced an online registration portal for the first time, while a new printable PVC technology was deployed during the recent Osun State governorship election.
The Commission is simultaneously refining its result management architecture, including the eEC8A system, to improve the verifiability and traceability of election results from polling units to the national collation centre.
From Abuja to the field
The new readiness tracker is part of a broader attempt by the Commission’s leadership to move election planning closer to the field, with Amupitan declaring that the credibility of the 2027 election would ultimately be determined at Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units rather than in headquarters offices in Abuja.
Opening the South-West zonal interactive meeting and readiness assessment in Lagos, the INEC chairman said the Commission was breaking with more than two decades of administrative practice in which zonal preparations were largely handled through headquarters directorates.
He said National Commissioners and directors from headquarters had been deployed to engage directly with Electoral Officers and administrative staff across the zones.
“The eyes of 200 million Nigerians, and the world are fixed on us,” Amupitan told staff, stressing that the conduct and competence of frontline personnel would be critical to the credibility of the 2027 election.
He said INEC would build on lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun governorship election, but warned that the 2027 General Election would require a significantly higher level of operational discipline because it would be conducted simultaneously across 36 states and the FCT.
According to him, voter apathy, declining public trust, misinformation and disinformation remain major threats to the electoral process, making professional conduct by election officials increasingly important.
He therefore reiterated the Commission’s zero-tolerance policy towards partisan conduct and administrative negligence, citing Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which provides for an oath of neutrality for Electoral Officers, Presiding Officers, Returning Officers and security personnel involved in elections.
States to produce risk plans
The two-day workshop for Administrative Secretaries is expected to translate the Commission’s national strategy into state-level operational plans.
Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said headquarters and state offices must operate from the same Election Project Plan while Administrative Secretaries are equipped with updated knowledge of new policies, technology and administrative procedures.
She said each state delegation was expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad-hoc staff recruitment and deployment plan, and a three-month stakeholder engagement plan, in addition to the new operational tracker.
The Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Prof. Ayobami Salami, said the early assessment was necessary because electoral credibility is built long before Election Day through adequate preparation, competent personnel and effective coordination.
He said the South-West presented a complex electoral environment that required the Commission to test not only routine preparedness but also the resilience of logistics, reliability of technology and effectiveness of stakeholder engagement.
Director, Planning and Monitoring, Mrs Helen Ajayi, said the zonal exercise would assess preparedness in logistics, ad-hoc staff recruitment, technology, security, training, voter education and stakeholder engagement.
It will also identify operational and logistical challenges that could undermine the 2027 elections and provide updates on voter registration, PVC collection and deployment of ICT resources.
Welfare and funding boost
Amupitan also disclosed that the Commission was finalising a new salary and welfare package for INEC staff, Commission members and Resident Electoral Commissioners.
The package includes the newly created Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS), which he said took effect from January 1, 2026, as well as a 150 per cent increase in overhead allocations to states effective July 1, 2026.
The Commission’s leadership is expected to take the readiness assessment to the remaining five geopolitical zones as part of efforts to establish a uniform operational standard ahead of the 2027 polls.
The Presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections are slated for February 6, 2027.
With the voter register closing in on 100 million and the scale of the next general election significantly larger than recent off-cycle polls, INEC’s new readiness architecture could become one of the most important tests of whether the Commission can translate its technological and administrative reforms into consistent field-level performance nationwide.
