The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that ballot box snatching and election result manipulation will no longer determine the outcome of elections, declaring that stronger legal and technological safeguards are now in place ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN), gave the assurance yesterday in Abuja during a courtesy visit by the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Lanre Issa-Onilu, to the commission’s headquarters. The meeting centred on strengthening collaboration between both agencies, particularly in voter education and public awareness ahead of the 2027 elections.
Amupitan said Nigeria’s electoral process has undergone significant reforms, with technology greatly reducing opportunities for electoral fraud.
According to him, innovations such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) have enhanced transparency and made manual alteration of election results increasingly difficult. He also reminded Nigerians that preparations for the 2027 general elections are already underway, with the presidential election scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship elections will hold on February 6, 2027.
The INEC chairman stressed that although technology has strengthened the electoral process, public confidence and active voter participation remain essential for credible elections. “We need to teach them why their vote matters, and how our new legal and technological safeguards protect their choices. We must look the rural farmer, the marketplace woman, and the disillusioned urban youth in the eye and explain to them, in the language they understand, that because of the current technological infrastructure, the era of snatching ballot boxes or rewriting results manually is gone”, he said.
Amupitan pointed to the February 21 Federal Capital Territory Area (FCTA) Council elections and the June 20 Ekiti State governorship election as evidence of improvements in the electoral process. According to him, both elections recorded early opening of polling units in more than 90 per cent of locations, successful biometric accreditation through BVAS, and faster uploading of results to the IReV portal.
Despite the operational successes, he expressed concern over persistent voter apathy and poor public understanding of evolving electoral procedures. He noted that many eligible voters, particularly in urban centres, either stayed away from the polls or experienced confusion over polling unit relocation and voter transfer processes.
“This is a clear indicator that while our technology is moving forward, civic familiarity with the evolving system is lagging. It is a loud diagnostic signal that far more needs to be done in the area of intensive, deep-rooted voter education, and it proves that we cannot afford to wait until the eve of the 2027 polls to start talking to our people”, he said. Amupitan however maintained that technological reforms alone cannot strengthen democracy unless citizens remain actively engaged in the electoral process.
The INEC chairman described the National Orientation Agency as a strategic partner in promoting civic responsibility and democratic participation across the country, and called for an expanded grassroots voter education campaign and stronger public enlightenment efforts against misinformation, fake news and vote-buying ahead of the 2027 elections.
Earlier, NOA Director-General Lanre Issa-Onilu expressed concern over low voter turnout despite the large number of registered voters across the country. He said increasing citizens’ participation in elections must become a national priority.
