AI won’t decide outcome of 2027 general election – INEC Chairman

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, has said Artificial Intelligence (AI) must not be allowed to determine the outcome of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.

Mr Amupitan said this on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the AI and Democracy Forum 2026, organised by Yiaga Africa in partnership with INEC, Microsoft, TikTok, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Dataphyte, the MacArthur Foundation, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and other partners.

The two-day forum, themed “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” brought together representatives of electoral commissions from Senegal, Kenya, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo, as well as security agencies, civil society organisations, the media, technology companies and students.

Mr Amupitan said the forum was aimed at moving discussions around artificial intelligence beyond identifying risks to developing practical responses ahead of the 2027 elections.

“Will algorithms decide the 2027 votes?” he asked.

“I consider our gathering here today not merely as an academic exercise or a routine policy consultation. This is a strategic imperative.”

He answered the question himself, saying the choice of who leads Nigeria must remain with the electorate.

“No, algorithms will not and must never decide the 2027 vote.

“2027 votes must be decided by the sovereign people of Nigeria,” he said.

According to him, AI would nevertheless have a significant influence on the information environment in which voters make decisions and on the administration and security of elections.

“AI will undeniably shape the information environment in which citizens form their choices, influence the speed and security of electoral logistics, and alter the tactics of both democratic actors and anti-democratic actors,” he said.

He urged INEC and its partners to ensure that AI was deployed to strengthen the electoral process rather than undermine it.

“Our task, therefore, at this forum and within the commission, is to ensure that AI remains a servant of democracy, not its master,” he said.

AI to support election logistics

Mr Amupitan said the scale of Nigeria’s electoral process made the use of technology increasingly necessary.

He said INEC was preparing to manage more than 100 million registered voters across 176,846 polling units in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

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

The chairman said INEC would have to deploy personnel and sensitive materials to difficult terrains across 774 local government areas, including remote and riverine communities and areas affected by insecurity.

He cited Kabi Ward in Kuje Area Council of the FCT as an example of the logistical difficulties faced by the commission.

According to him, reaching the area could take about three hours and there was limited network coverage.

Mr Amupitan said AI could help the commission overcome some of these challenges through predictive modelling, geospatial analysis and dynamic routing.

“Machine learning algorithms can analyse historical traffic patterns, weather forecasts, road conditions and security incidents to generate optimal deployment routes for logistic vehicles across the terrains,” he said.

He added that AI-powered systems could also help INEC predict demand for non-sensitive materials, monitor warehouse stock and identify supply-chain bottlenecks before they affect election-day operations.

Mr Amupitan said INEC had tested some of these systems during elections conducted since he assumed office, adding that there had been improvements in the early deployment of election materials and commencement of voting.

AI deployed in voter registration, results management

The INEC chairman also listed several areas where the commission had incorporated technology into the electoral process.

He said the commission had digitised its candidate nomination process through the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal, which he said had processed more than 15,000 nominations from 22 political parties ahead of the 2027 elections.

He also said INEC had introduced online voter registration, allowing Nigerians to begin the registration process remotely using digital devices.

Mr Amupitan said the commission had also experimented with downloadable voter cards, including during the Osun governorship election, for voters whose cards had been lost or damaged and who were unable to receive replacements before the election.

He said AI could also assist with detecting anomalies in election results.

According to INEC boss, algorithms could identify mathematical inconsistencies, unusual patterns and image-quality problems in uploaded polling-unit results before they were accepted into INEC’s results management system.

He said this would complement, rather than replace, human oversight and the statutory processes for declaring election results.

Mr Amupitan also said AI was being used to improve the voters’ register by helping the commission identify duplicate biometric records.

“With over 13 million records in our national register of voters, AI-enhanced automated biometric identification systems drastically accelerate deduplication processes, detecting facial and fingerprint duplicates with unprecedented speed and accuracy,” he said.

INEC establishes AI unit

The chairman disclosed that INEC had established an AI unit within its Information and Communication Technology department.

He said the commission was also finalising a governance framework for the use of artificial AI in elections, with support from IFES and other partners.

He said the framework would be guided by principles including integrity, transparency, human intervention and public auditing.

Mr Amupitan warned that the same technology that could strengthen elections could also be exploited to attack electoral systems and manipulate public information.

He said INEC’s digital infrastructure, including its results management and candidate nomination platforms, could become targets for malicious cyber actors.

“Every day we check, working with experts in this area, to detect faults and threats to our systems,” he said.

He added that AI-powered cyber-security systems could help detect denial-of-service attacks, brute-force attacks and other threats to electoral infrastructure.

Yiaga Africa warns against opaque AI result platforms

The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, said rebuilding public confidence would be one of the major challenges ahead of the 2027 elections.

Mr Itodo said Nigerians’ distrust of the electoral process remained high, partly because of the role technology played in the 2023 election.

“Just last week, Yiaga Africa issued a national voting intention survey report, where it is obvious that Nigerians doubt the credibility of the process, and that their votes will not count in 2027,” he said.

The survey was designed to assess voter interest and participation and identify factors that could encourage or discourage Nigerians from taking part in the elections.

He said the deployment of technology alone would not guarantee credible elections, stressing that the integrity of those managing the systems was equally important.

“It is one thing to deploy technology; it is another thing for the personal integrity of those managing those technologies to deliver,” he said.

Mr Itodo also raised concerns about the growing number of AI-powered platforms being developed to aggregate election results ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said only INEC had the legal authority to declare election results and winners, although other organisations could independently aggregate results for monitoring and oversight.

“We encourage stakeholders to continue to use different tools and platforms to keep an eye on the results process,” he said.

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He urged organisations deploying AI for results aggregation to ensure that their systems were accurate, transparent and auditable.

“For us, as an organisation, we’re very open and transparent about the methodologies that we use,” he said.

Mr Itodo said organisations using AI in elections should be guided by the principles of integrity, transparency and auditability to prevent the technology from becoming a source of political instability.

The forum is expected to develop practical recommendations for governing the use of AI in Nigeria’s electoral process ahead of the 2027 general elections.