2027 Elections: Parties Clash Over INEC’s Preparations

With just 77 days remaining before the 2027 general elections, political parties have expressed differing views about the preparedness of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), following the discovery of artificial intelligence-generated photographs and other irregularities in the preliminary voters’ register.

The controversy has raised concerns about the integrity of the electoral database, the effectiveness of INEC’s internal monitoring systems and its ability to conduct elections that will command public confidence.

The concerns followed complaints about questionable names, addresses, genders and photographs in the preliminary register. Although INEC has acknowledged the irregularities and promised to correct them before releasing the final register on December 15, 2026, the discovery has exposed weaknesses in the voter registration process.

INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Dr Lawrence Bayode, disclosed that some registration officers allegedly used their official login credentials to introduce irregular entries into the database. He, however, said the commission had identified those responsible and was taking steps to address the problem.

The preliminary register, uploaded on October 26, contains more than 103.4 million registered voters. Bayode explained that the figure comprises over 93 million voters recorded in the 2023 register and additional registrations from the continuous voter registration exercise conducted ahead of the 2027 elections.

He said INEC was deploying technology to address the identified shortcomings, adding that its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) had detected several questionable photographs before the preliminary register was published.

Against this backdrop, political party officials offered differing assessments of the commission’s preparations, the implications of the AI-generated images and the measures required to guarantee credible elections.

While some parties called for urgent action to restore public confidence, others maintained that the discovery should not be exaggerated, arguing that INEC still had sufficient time to address the problems.

The Labour Party described the discovery of AI-generated photographs in the preliminary register as a serious development requiring urgent attention, particularly with the elections approaching.

Its National Publicity Secretary, Ken Asogwa, said the matter could no longer be dismissed as speculation following INEC’s admission that irregularities had occurred.

Asogwa expressed concern that the development was happening under the leadership of the current INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, whom he described as a lawyer and academic with considerable professional experience.

He said the discovery less than 90 days before a crucial election was troubling and urged the commission to return to the drawing board to rebuild public confidence.

Although he said INEC was best positioned to explain its level of preparedness, he stressed that public perception was an important part of the electoral process.

However, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) expressed confidence in INEC’s preparations, urging political parties and other stakeholders not to exaggerate the implications of the discovery.

The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Jungudo Haruna Mohammed, acknowledged complaints about the preliminary voters’ register, particularly allegations that AI-generated images had been included.

He said INEC’s admission of the problem and its commitment to correcting the anomalies should be recognised.

Mohammed argued that the appearance of AI-generated photographs was not entirely surprising given the growing use of artificial intelligence, but maintained that their discovery did not necessarily mean the electoral process had been compromised.

He also said the questionable entries were unlikely to be numerous enough to affect the outcome of the elections.

According to him, the register currently available to the public is preliminary and not the final document that will be used for the polls. He expressed confidence that INEC would deploy the necessary technology to remove unverifiable entries before the final register is published.

On the commission’s overall preparedness, Mohammed said the PDP had not identified any development capable of threatening the 2027 elections.

He disclosed that INEC had outlined about 14 or 15 major activities ahead of the polls and had reportedly completed approximately 10 of them, based on information previously received from the chairman.

The PDP spokesman urged opposition parties and public commentators to exercise restraint in their statements, warning that careless remarks could undermine confidence in the electoral process.

He also commended Nigerians for scrutinising the voters’ register and monitoring the commission’s activities, saying increased public vigilance would encourage transparency.

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM), however, called for caution in the deployment of artificial intelligence in the electoral process.

Its National Publicity Secretary, Abubakar Yusuf, said INEC must remain conscious of its responsibilities and ensure that technological innovations did not undermine the objective of conducting credible elections.

He maintained that the 2027 polls must be acceptable, credible and verifiable, warning that the use of AI should not compromise the integrity of the electoral process.

The Adewole Adebayo-Bugaje Presidential Campaign Council of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) was more critical, describing INEC’s level of preparedness as fundamentally compromised by what it called weaknesses in technological integrity and institutional transparency.

The council’s Chief Media and Communications Adviser, Comrade Mark Adebayo, told the publication in Abuja that its assessment of the National Voters’ Register, biometric infrastructure and logistical arrangements had revealed what it considered serious warning signs.

He alleged that unusual patterns consistent with the use of Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs) might have been deployed on INEC platforms to create synthetic identities and inflate the voters’ register.

Adebayo also claimed that statistical analysis showed an unusual increase in registered voters aged between 18 and 22 in certain areas, which he said differed from historical census figures and local birth rates.

He argued that the presence of AI-generated photographs raised questions about whether the Automated Biometric Identification System was malfunctioning or had been deliberately bypassed.

The SDP campaign council further alleged that reports from limited mock trials showed unresolved battery and software performance problems with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in some rural local government areas.

The council consequently demanded an independent digital audit of the voters’ register, with accredited political party technology experts and international observers granted read-only access to the central database.

It also called for a public, televised stress test of BVAS machines across all senatorial districts within 14 days to assess biometric verification speeds and battery performance.

Additionally, the SDP demanded that INEC publish a verifiable list of deleted, duplicated and flagged synthetic entries, organised by polling unit, before printing the final register.

Adebayo said the campaign council supported the conduct of the elections but insisted that they must meet legal and technological standards.

The Action Democratic Party (ADP) also called for an independent investigation into the irregularities, urging INEC to identify those responsible and impose appropriate sanctions where wrongdoing was established.

Its National Chairman, Yabagi Yusuf Sani, said the credibility of an election depended on the integrity of the voters’ register, transparency in electoral preparations, neutrality of officials and public confidence in the entire process.

Sani described the reported admission by INEC’s ICT director that some registration officers introduced AI-generated photographs into the system as a serious development that raised questions about the commission’s internal controls.

He called for a comprehensive forensic audit of the voters’ register before its final certification, adding that INEC must demonstrate its readiness through verifiable actions rather than assurances.

The ADP chairman also urged the commission to provide clear evidence that the register was credible, electoral technologies were reliable, sensitive materials were secure and arrangements for voting, collation and transmission of results were sufficiently robust.

He warned that technological innovations intended to strengthen elections could undermine public confidence if they were not supported by adequate safeguards, transparency and accountability.

Sani further called on INEC to engage political parties, civil society organisations and security agencies, while addressing outstanding concerns from previous elections.

For the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the immediate priority should include removing the names of deceased Nigerians from the voters’ register.

The National Presidential Campaign Council of the party said reports that deceased persons remained on the register raised serious questions about its accuracy and integrity.

In a statement, the council’s spokesperson, Dr Chiogo Constance Ikokwu, cited the names of Raymond Dokpesi, Ifeanyi Ubah, Muhammadu Buhari and Rotimi Akeredolu as examples of deceased Nigerians reportedly still appearing in the register.

She questioned how many other deceased persons might remain listed across the country’s 774 local government areas and when the register was last comprehensively updated.

Ikokwu said INEC had a legal responsibility to clean up the register, particularly where citizens had submitted complaints.

She urged Nigerians and political parties to exercise their right to file objections against questionable entries, while calling on the commission to establish an online platform where challenged names could be published and reviewed.

According to her, the platform should also allow living persons whose names had been challenged to respond and provide the necessary information.

The NDC spokesperson demanded an independent and professional audit of INEC’s processes and mechanisms, citing concerns surrounding the credibility of the 2023 elections.

Meanwhile, INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, disclosed that the commission had received more than 4,800 claims and approximately 600 objections to the preliminary voters’ register.

Amupitan made this known on Friday when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Pre-Election Fact-Finding Mission, led by former Sierra Leonean Vice-President Victor Bockarie Foh, visited the commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

He said the claims received at registration areas where the preliminary register was displayed as of Thursday mainly involved corrections and other minor issues.

On the objections, the chairman disclosed that INEC had received about 600 complaints through electoral officers and Resident Electoral Commissioners from different wards.

He added that the online publication of the register had helped confirm some of the complaints previously received by the commission.

Amupitan said the register currently contained more than 103 million registered voters, describing the figure as substantial. He assured Nigerians that the identified discrepancies would be corrected before the final register was certified on December 15, 2026.

The commission recently completed three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and concluded the physical display of the preliminary register at registration areas nationwide.

It also uploaded the register to its online portal, display.inecnigeria.org, to enable members of the public to scrutinise the entries and submit claims or objections.

Amupitan reiterated that the presidential and National Assembly elections would hold on January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections were scheduled for February 6, 2027.

He said INEC would deploy personnel and technology across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, covering 774 local government areas, 8,809 registration areas and 176,846 polling units.

The chairman disclosed that the commission had completed nine of the 14 major milestones contained in its revised timetable and schedule of activities.

He also said INEC had begun conducting zonal readiness assessment tours to evaluate its preparations more directly.

The commission had visited the South-West in Lagos, the North-West in Kaduna, the South-East in Enugu and the North-East in Gombe, with the South-South assessment scheduled to take place in Port Harcourt. The North-Central zone was expected to be visited the following week.

According to Amupitan, the assessments had shown that some areas required more personnel and resources than initially planned because of difficult terrain and security challenges.

He further disclosed that INEC was preparing to conduct a nationwide mock accreditation exercise in November to test voter accreditation and simultaneous transmission of results.

The exercise, he said, would help identify and resolve possible technical glitches before election day, particularly those similar to the problems experienced during the 2023 elections.

Amupitan explained that the commission would deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System for dual biometric verification using fingerprints and facial recognition.

INEC has also introduced a new electronic verification platform, eEC8A, for results transmitted to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

The disagreements among political parties have placed renewed attention on INEC’s responsibility to demonstrate that the irregularities identified in the preliminary register are being properly addressed.

With December 15 set as the deadline for certifying the final voters’ register, the commission faces the task of resolving the concerns raised by political parties and members of the public.

Its ability to correct the identified discrepancies and demonstrate the reliability of its electoral technology will be closely watched as preparations continue for the 2027 general elections.