Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has reassured Nigerians that the technical failures that disrupted the electronic transmission of results during the 2023 general election have been fully addressed and will not affect the 2027 polls.
Gatekeepers News reports that speaking on Saturday at a citizens’ townhall in Abuja on the Electoral Act 2026, INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan said the commission has corrected the issues that previously prevented real-time uploading of polling unit results to INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the last presidential election. He expressed confidence that extensive preparations and system testing would guarantee smooth electronic result transmission in the upcoming elections.
“The glitch is eliminated; by God’s grace, it will not surface in Nigeria,” Amupitan declared.
The chairman explained that while the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) had been tested during off-cycle governorship elections prior to 2023, the presidential election exposed weaknesses in stress-testing across multiple states. He stressed the importance of thorough technological trials before deployment in large-scale elections, noting that modern elections worldwide rely heavily on electronic systems.
“Election anywhere in the world is now about technology, but before deploying any technology, it is important to test it thoroughly,” he said. “We will try to give Nigerians a near-perfect election.”
Amupitan also clarified that legal provisions allowing for alternative collation methods are only precautionary measures, not an expectation that electronic transmission will fail.
“It is just a proviso, a safety. If it fails, results must still be transmitted. But our determination is that it will not fail during my tenure,” he added, reinforcing the commission’s commitment to transparency and reliability ahead of the 2027 elections.
