INEC Unveils New System to Block Polling Unit Rigging

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has unveiled an enhanced electronic result management system which it says will prevent manipulation of election results at polling units during the 2027 general elections.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, disclosed this on Monday in Abuja at a strategic workshop for editors organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, in collaboration with the Commission.

Amupitan said the enhanced eEC8A system would digitise polling-unit result sheets, authenticate them cryptographically and upload them directly to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV. He said the system was designed to block manipulation before results move to the collation stage.

According to him, the Commission has also acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, devices, while existing machines have undergone software hardening, battery optimisation and biometric calibration to prevent accreditation bypass and reduce opportunities for manual manipulation.

Amupitan said once results were authenticated at polling units and uploaded directly to IReV, the figures could not be altered at subsequent collation centres. He described the enhanced eEC8A system as a major improvement in the Commission's efforts to strengthen the integrity of election results.

The INEC chairman also disclosed that the national register of voters had risen above 103 million following the conclusion of the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise and final biometric verification. The three phases produced 10,772,421 new registrations, subject to the completion of the Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, verification. Nationwide collection of Permanent Voter Cards is scheduled to begin on Friday, October 9.

He warned political parties, candidates and their supporters against violence, hate speech and vote-buying, saying INEC would pursue arrests, sanctions and prosecution for violations of the Electoral Act. He said the Commission was working with the Federal Ministry of Justice, EFCC, ICPC and NFIU to monitor illegal campaign spending and deploy financial-monitoring teams and undercover surveillance at polling units.

Amupitan said INEC had also activated an early-warning framework through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, to track political violence, thuggery and dangerous campaign rhetoric. He warned that no political ambition justified the loss of Nigerian lives.

He further said INEC had completed readiness assessments in the South-West and North-West zones and had begun early procurement and distribution of non-sensitive election materials to reduce delays on election day. The Commission has also introduced a new salary structure for election management personnel and increased state-office operational overheads by 150 per cent from July 1, 2026.

NGE President, Mr Eze Anaba, said elections depended heavily on public trust and urged INEC and the media to maintain openness and regular engagement. He noted that misinformation, manipulated audio-visual material and deepfakes posed growing challenges to the electoral process and called for stronger fact-checking and verification ahead of the 2027 polls.