2027: INEC chairman orders review of CVR records, PVC bottlenecks in South-East

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has directed a review of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) records in the South-East and the removal of all obstacles to the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of the 2027 general election.

Prof. Amupitan gave the directive on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, in Enugu at the South-East Zonal Interactive Meeting with Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election.

He said the Commission’s “primary operational focus in the South-East is to review our local CVR records and dismantle every bottleneck affecting PVC distribution.”

“Our objective is uncompromising: no eligible citizen who registered should be disenfranchised by administrative or logistical friction,” he said.

He disclosed that the National Register of Voters now stands at over 103 million.

Referring to Section 10 of the Electoral Act 2026, he said the Commission conducted three phases of CVR. Phase I, which ran from August 25 to December 10, 2025, registered 2,611,266 voters; Phase II, from January 5 to April 17, 2026, registered 4,121,835; and Phase III, from May 11 to July 26, 2026, registered 3,867,997.

The total number of new registrants stands at 10,772,421, subject to final deduplication by the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) at the national headquarters.

He said the Commission introduced the Online Registration Portal for the first time during Phase III to “eliminate barriers of distance and time”. It also activated Printable PVC technology in line with Section 18(1) of the Electoral Act 2026, so that “waiting for months to pick up a voter’s card becomes a relic of the past”.

The Enugu engagement is the third stop on the nationwide readiness tour, following meetings in the South-West in Lagos on September 7, 2026, and the North-West in Kaduna on September 28, 2026.

Amupitan said the visit was significant because no INEC chairman had visited the Enugu office since 1999, with preparations in the zone previously coordinated through delegated structures.

“Today, as we bring our nationwide tour to the South-East, we continue to break that tradition of remote governance,” he said.

He said he was accompanied by National Commissioners, technical aides and directors because “the true success of any election is not decided solely in the meeting rooms of our headquarters in Abuja. It is decided in the field”.

He said the Commission’s work extended across the South-East’s 95 Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres (RACs) and polling units.

He reminded officials that the 2027 general election would be a simultaneous national assignment across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), involving over 103 million voters and 176,846 polling units.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for Saturday, January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State House of Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, February 6, 2027.

“The statutory timeline is fixed, and the clock is ticking,” he said.

He said the Commission held a World Press Conference and National Stakeholders Engagement two weeks earlier to mark 100 days to the first ballot, adding that nine of the 14 statutory milestones had been completed.

He commended staff for their work during the Osun off-cycle governorship election, the Anambra and Ekiti elections, the FCT Area Council polls, and 16 federal and state bye-elections.

On the challenges facing the Commission, he identified public distrust, voter apathy and misinformation.

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“A single malicious fake news post, an unverified rumour, or a deepfake video can travel across millions of screens in seconds. The conduct, competence, and character of our staff in the field are either our strongest defence against fake news, or its biggest catalyst,” he said.

He added that the Commission’s response would be “proactive transparency, swift official communication, and uncompromising operational precision”.

On security, he said the Commission had strengthened its partnership with the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), using Election Risk Management (ERM) tools to establish “a robust, intelligence-driven security architecture”.

He disclosed that, through intelligence provided by the Department of State Services (DSS), those behind a plot targeting ad hoc staff, particularly corps members, had been identified and arrested and would be prosecuted.

He added that a security conference would be held soon.

On technology, he said the Commission was refining its Result Management Systems, including the newly introduced eEC8A electronic verification platform, to ensure that “from the polling unit to the national collation center, the journey of every single vote is visible, verifiable, and validated in real time” through the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

Addressing discipline, he said: “Partisan leaning, administrative negligence, extortion, or compromised ethics will not be tolerated under my leadership.”

He reminded staff of Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026, which requires them to swear an oath of loyalty and neutrality.

“The question governing your actions must never be ‘Who will benefit from this decision?’ The question must always be ‘What does the law require me to do?’” he said.

On logistics, he said the Commission had procured and dispatched new operational pickup vehicles to states and local government areas under a zero-failure protocol. He added that new vehicles had been provided for Administrative Secretaries and that an Electoral Logistics Committee (E-Loc) had been established under the chairmanship of Rear Admiral Jamila Malafa (rtd.).

On staff welfare, he said the Commission had introduced the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS), effective January 1, 2026, moving its workforce out of the regular civil service structure.

He added that a new salary package was at an advanced stage, while monthly overhead allocations to state offices had been increased by 150 per cent, effective July 1, 2026.

“We are providing you with the tools, the vehicles, the technology, and the financial backing required to excel. In return, the Commission demands nothing less than absolute neutrality, unassailable integrity, and operational excellence,” he said.

“To the voter in a rural ward or an urban center, INEC is not the Chairman in Abuja; INEC is you. The road to 2027 passes through our hands, and we shall not falter,” he added.

Those in attendance included National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) from the South-East, the Acting Director-General of The Electoral Institute, directors from the national headquarters, administrative secretaries, technical aides, Electoral Officers, heads of departments, security agencies and members of the media.