By David Lawani, Abuja
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, has declared that the choice of Nigeria’s leaders in the 2027 general elections will rest solely with voters, insisting that no technology or automated system can determine the outcome.
Amupitan made the declaration on Wednesday in Abuja at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, where he stressed that technological tools deployed in the electoral process would remain subject to human judgment, statutory controls and institutional oversight.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” the INEC chairman said.
He said while technology could assist election management, the authority to determine who governs Nigeria belonged exclusively to citizens exercising their franchise.
“The choice of who leads Nigeria belongs exclusively to the Nigerian people,” he said.
Amupitan acknowledged that artificial intelligence would nevertheless influence the electoral environment by shaping the flow of information, improving logistics and changing the methods available to both legitimate political actors and those seeking to disrupt the democratic process.
He said INEC was therefore exploring the responsible use of emerging technologies to improve the efficiency, security and transparency of election administration without surrendering critical decisions to automated systems.
Among the areas where technology could assist, he listed logistics and route optimisation, result-audit support, biometric database management, multilingual voter engagement and cybersecurity.
The INEC chairman, however, drew a firm line between technological assistance and electoral decision-making, saying critical stages of the process would remain under human control.
He specifically ruled out the possibility of allowing autonomous systems to take over voter accreditation, result collation, candidate qualification or other decisions with direct implications for electoral outcomes.
“Human accountability, statutory oversight, and judicial review will remain paramount at every stage of the electoral chain,” Amupitan said.
The INEC chairman described the 2027 election as a major administrative and democratic undertaking, involving more than 103 million registered voters, 176,846 polling units and 774 local government areas.
He said the commission had made progress in preparations for the elections, having completed 10 of the 14 major operational milestones stipulated by the Electoral Act 2026.
According to him, INEC has also procured additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) units and digitised candidate nominations through its Candidates Nomination Portal.
The commission, he added, had processed more than 15,000 nominations submitted by 22 political parties and introduced online voter registration as part of its preparations.
Amupitan said the scale of the 2027 election demanded robust systems capable of improving administrative efficiency while preserving the principle that electoral decisions must remain accountable to the electorate and governed by law.
He spoke against the backdrop of growing concerns over the potential use of sophisticated digital tools to manipulate information, influence voters or disrupt electoral processes.
The INEC chairman said the response should not be to reject technology but to ensure that its application remained transparent, accountable and firmly controlled by institutions responsible for conducting elections.
Earlier, the Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, stressed the importance of accurate data, transparent methodologies and auditable systems in protecting electoral integrity.
The forum, jointly organised by INEC and Yiaga Africa, brought together representatives of African electoral bodies, diplomats, political parties, civil society organisations, development partners, security agencies, technology companies, media organisations and academics.
The gathering also featured the Chairperson of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions and Chairman of Senegal’s Electoral Commission, Abdoulaye Sylla, alongside INEC National Commissioners and Resident Electoral Commissioners.
