The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has commenced the deployment of Artificial Intelligence tools to help detect discrepancies in election result records ahead of the 2027 general elections. INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Ojo Amupitan, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking at the Global Conference on Responsible AI and Elections in Ottawa, Canada, saying the initiative formed part of efforts to improve the credibility, efficiency and integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process.
Amupitan said the commission had introduced an intelligent Results Management process that would assist election officials in identifying possible inconsistencies in result records. He, however, stressed that AI would not be allowed to independently determine electoral outcomes, noting that the technology would complement, rather than replace, human oversight and institutional responsibility. According to him, Nigeria’s experience with technologies such as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, INEC Result Viewing Portal and Automated Biometrics Identification System has demonstrated the importance of innovation in reducing human error and limiting opportunities for manual interference.
The INEC chairman said the commission had established a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Division within its ICT Department and developed an AI Roadmap to guide the phased adoption of the technology. He added that an AI Governance Framework was also undergoing internal approval, while staff training and capacity building had commenced. The framework is expected to be guided by human oversight, transparency and accountability, data protection and privacy, cybersecurity and risk management, as well as operational value and public trust.
Amupitan said the adoption of AI was particularly important given the scale of Nigeria’s electoral operations, involving more than 93 million registered voters, about 180,000 polling units and approximately 185,000 BVAS devices across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory. He said the commission would continue to assess both the benefits and risks of AI before extending its application to other areas of election administration. His position comes amid growing concerns over the use of AI generated misinformation, deepfakes and manipulated political content ahead of the 2027 elections, making technology and public trust central issues in preparations for the polls.