The Independent National Electoral Commission has ruled out full automation of voter accreditation and result collation for the 2027 general elections, insisting that Nigerian voters not artificial intelligence will determine the outcome.
INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN) delivered the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja while giving the keynote address at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, organised with Yiaga Africa.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” Amupitan said. He stressed that as a foundational policy, no critical electoral decision result collation, voter accreditation or candidate qualification would ever be fully automated or handed over to an autonomous system. Human accountability, statutory oversight and judicial review would remain essential at every stage.
The forum opened with the question “Will Algorithms Decide the 2027 Vote?” Amupitan’s answer was an unequivocal no. The choice of who leads Nigeria, he said, belongs exclusively to the Nigerian people.
Speaking 92 days before the general elections, the chairman noted that the digital environment had changed markedly since 2023. INEC is no longer dealing only with logistical challenges but with a landscape in which AI can shape what voters see, how they think and how much they trust the process.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” he said. Generative AI has made it cheap and easy to produce convincing deepfakes videos of candidates saying things they never said or of INEC officials issuing false instructions. A well-timed deepfake or cloned audio could announce a false candidate withdrawal, election postponement or inflammatory ethnoreligious remarks and spread within minutes. Malicious actors could also impersonate the INEC chairman, resident electoral commissioners or other officials to issue fake guidelines, declare unauthorised results or tell voters to stay home.
In response, INEC has set up an AI Unit inside its ICT Directorate. The unit is equipped with real-time digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics capacity. Any AI tool used by the commission for logistics, database management or operational support must pass rigorous audits for explainability, fairness and security before deployment.
The commission is also developing a Digital Strategy to monitor the information environment and is partnering with technology platforms to rapidly debunk and label AI-generated content that touches on the electoral process. Amupitan called on Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram to restrict unlabelled synthetic media that impersonates election officials, candidates or security personnel, enforce disclaimers on political advertisements, and limit micro-targeting based on ethnicity, religion or local origin. He further urged political parties and candidates to sign an Ethical AI Code of Conduct that bans deepfakes, synthetic impersonation, dark ads and automated botnets.
At the same time, Amupitan described AI as a useful tool for administrative efficiency. While human collation remains the statutory standard for declaring results, AI can run parallel statistical audits on polling-unit result sheets uploaded through the eEC8A system, flagging mathematical inconsistencies, unusual patterns and image quality problems for review. Geospatial analytics can also help deploy staff, vehicles, boats and sensitive materials to the country’s 176,846 polling units before 7:30 a.m. on election day.
The 2027 general election will be Africa’s largest democratic exercise, involving more than 103 million registered voters across 774 local government areas. Ten of the 14 major operational milestones required under the Electoral Act 2026 have already been completed, Amupitan said.
He closed by emphasising that algorithms have no moral compass, civic duty or constitutional oath. “They do not have a conscience, they do not have a country, and they do not have a vote. INEC’s job is to ensure that the voice of the people is heard clearly, above the noise of the machines.
“On election day in 2027, it will be the thumbprint of the Nigerian citizen, guided by their own will and their own hopes, that decides our future.”
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