2027 polls: Voter register nears 100m

The Independent National Electoral Commission is set to deploy a real-time election readiness tracker to monitor preparations for the 2027 elections across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

The tracker, which will give INEC’s leadership instant access to updates on logistics, recruitment and training of ad hoc staff, technology and other election preparations, is part of efforts to prevent last-minute operational failures ahead of the polls.

The INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN), disclosed this on Monday in Lagos at a two-day strategic operational workshop for administrative secretaries.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to roll out a first-of-its-kind, real-time readiness tracker that will allow the commission to monitor election preparations across all 36 sStates and the Federal Capital Territory instantly, as the national voter register approaches the historic 100 million mark ahead of the 2027 general election,” a statement signed by the commission’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, on Monday, read.

According to the statement, the workshop would produce a standardised, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template, which will be linked to the commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre dashboard and Election Project Plan.

Amupitan said INEC had historically lacked a dedicated and uniform mechanism for monitoring the operational responsibilities of administrative secretaries across the country.

He said the new system would change that by giving the Resident Electoral Commissioners, supervising national commissioners, the secretary to the commission and the headquarters “instant visibility” into the state of preparations.

The tracker, the statement said, would cover areas including distribution of election materials, training of ad hoc personnel and general state-level readiness.

Amupitan said the idea was to move the commission away from its traditional last-minute approach.

The chairman described the objective as replacing “reactive panic with proactive management.”

This is as the chairman also disclosed that the Continuous Voter Registration exercise, conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, had recorded a cumulative total of 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System verification.

Amupitan further stated that the commission’s National Register of Voters was “approaching the 100 million mark,” reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that no eligible Nigerian is disenfranchised due to logistical bottlenecks in PVC distribution.

Amupitan said Continuous Voter Registration was one of five major operational areas being reviewed at the workshop.

The others are logistics and materials management, electoral technology, optimisation of ad hoc staff and financial compliance.

The INEC boss said the tracker was not being designed merely for the 2027 election cycle, adding that it would serve as a permanent operational and onboarding blueprint for future administrative secretaries.

He said the commission was drawing lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State governorship election, where disciplined logistics and functioning technology contributed to what INEC considered a transparent process.

“We are now working to replicate that standard nationally,” Amupitan said, according to the statement.

He said the commission had about six months to prepare for the 2027 general election.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections will be held on February 6.

Speaking on the preparations, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as timely, while commending the European Union, through its Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria programme, for supporting the exercise.

The Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the workshop would ensure that the headquarters and state offices worked from the same Election Project Plan.

She added that each state delegation was expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad hoc recruitment and deployment plan and a stakeholder engagement plan covering the next three months.

Meanwhile, Amupitan has warned INEC staff that the pressure on the commission ahead of the 2027 election would be enormous.

At a separate South-West zonal interactive meeting and readiness assessment in Lagos on Monday, the chairman said the commission’s staff were effectively on the frontline of Nigeria’s democracy.

“The eyes of 200 million Nigerians, and the world, are fixed on us,” he said.

The meeting, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, marked the beginning of a six-zone tour by the commission to assess its preparedness for the 2027 elections.

Amupitan said the exercise was a departure from more than two decades of administrative practice in which zonal preparations were largely handled by headquarters directorates.

He said the real test of INEC’s preparedness would not be found in meeting rooms in Abuja but at local government areas, registration area centres and polling units across the country.

The chairman identified voter apathy, public distrust and the spread of misinformation and disinformation as major threats to the 2027 elections.

He said the competence and conduct of INEC’s field officers would remain the commission’s “strongest defence against false narratives.”

The commission said it was also refining its result management systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to improve the verification of results from polling units through the national collation centre.

Amupitan further warned INEC personnel against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, citing Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which requires relevant electoral and security personnel to take an oath of neutrality.

The commission said the South-West engagement would focus on logistics, technology, security, voter education, recruitment and stakeholder engagement as preparations intensify for the 2027 polls.