From Atiku Sarki, Abuja
As part of preparations to conduct free, fair and credible elections in the 2027 General Election, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, on Monday, September 7, 2026, declared open the South-West Zonal Interactive Meeting and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election.
He described the engagement as a departure from more than two decades of administrative practice in which zonal preparations were handled primarily through the Commission’s headquarters directorates.
According to a Commission bulletin, the event, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos, marked the commencement of a six-zone national tour designed to assess INEC’s operational preparedness ahead of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections scheduled for Saturday, January 16, 2027, and the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly Elections scheduled for Saturday, February 6, 2027.
Prof. Amupitan was accompanied by National Commissioners and directors from the Commission’s headquarters to engage directly with Electoral Officers and administrative staff, whom he described as the frontline guardians of Nigeria’s democracy.
He said the true measure of electoral success was determined not in meeting rooms in Abuja but in the Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units where field officers handle the day-to-day operations of the electoral process.
The Chairman noted that the Commission was building on the success of recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State Governorship Election, which he said demonstrated INEC’s capacity when operational discipline, technical competence and administrative integrity converge.
He, however, cautioned that the scale of the 2027 General Election, which will take place across 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, would demand a higher standard of performance than any single-state election.
Prof. Amupitan identified voter apathy, a lingering trust deficit, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation as key challenges confronting the Commission.
He stressed that the conduct and competence of field staff remained the Commission’s strongest defence against false narratives and public distrust.
INEC Records Over 10.7 Million New Registrants
On voter registration, the INEC Chairman disclosed that the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, recorded a cumulative 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) verification.
He said the third phase of the CVR introduced, for the first time in Nigeria, an online registration portal to ease access for eligible voters.
He also highlighted the introduction of new Printable Permanent Voter’s Card (PVC) technology, first deployed during the Osun State election, in line with Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act.
Prof. Amupitan said the Commission’s National Register of Voters was approaching the 100 million mark.
He reaffirmed INEC’s commitment to ensuring that no eligible Nigerian is disenfranchised because of logistical bottlenecks in PVC distribution.
INEC Strengthens Election Technology
On technology, the INEC Chairman said the Commission was refining its Result Management Systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to strengthen the verifiability of election results from the polling unit to the national collation centre.
He restated the Commission’s zero-tolerance stance on partisan conduct and administrative negligence among its staff.
He cited Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which mandates an oath of neutrality for Electoral Officers, Presiding Officers, Returning Officers and security personnel involved in elections.
The INEC Chairman also disclosed that the Commission was finalising a new salary and welfare package for INEC staff, Commission Members and Resident Electoral Commissioners.
This includes the newly created Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS), which took effect on January 1, 2026, as well as a 150 per cent increase in overhead allocations to states effective July 1, 2026.
Lagos REC Commends Early Preparation
In his welcome address, the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Professor Ayobami Salami, said Lagos was honoured to host the maiden edition of the zonal engagement.
He noted that electoral credibility is built over time through early preparation, competent personnel and effective coordination, rather than being determined solely on Election Day.
Professor Salami said the South-West zone presented a diverse electoral environment requiring readiness assessments that go beyond routine checklists to examine the resilience of logistics, the reliability of technology and the strength of stakeholder engagement across the six states.
He commended the Commission’s leadership for prioritising early preparedness and described INEC personnel as its greatest asset in safeguarding the credibility of the 2027 General Election.
INEC Sets Four Key Objectives
Setting out the objectives of the engagement, the Director of Planning and Monitoring, Mrs Helen Ajayi, said the interactive meeting was designed around four key goals.
These include assessing the preparedness of South-West states through situation reports on logistics, ad hoc staff recruitment, technology, security, training, voter education and stakeholder engagement.
The meeting also seeks to identify operational and logistical challenges within the states that could affect the successful conduct of the 2027 General Election.
Other objectives include providing departmental updates on voter registration, the collection of Permanent Voter’s Cards and the deployment and management of other ICT resources.
The Commission also aims to align all staff with its Code of Conduct, as well as its operational and logistics readiness plans ahead of the elections.
The interactive session featured departmental engagements covering voter registration, electoral technology, staff conduct, logistics and state-level situation reports from Resident Electoral Commissioners across the South-West zone.
The Lagos engagement marks the opening leg of a six-zone national tour by the Commission’s leadership as INEC intensifies preparations for what is expected to be one of the most closely watched electoral cycles in Nigeria’s democratic history.
