INEC Deploys Artificial Intelligence for Result Verification Ahead of 2027 Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced plans to use AI tools to check election results and improve online security before Nigeria’s 2027 general elections. This is a major change in how the commission plans to use technology. INEC hopes it will help people trust elections again after problems with technology and election arrangements during the last elections.

INEC Chairman Professor Joash Amupitan explained the plan at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 in Abuja. According to INEC, AI will mainly be used to check that election numbers are correct before they are uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV). It will also watch for online security threats as they happen. INEC wants to avoid the problems seen during the 2023 elections, when delays and technical failures on IReV caused widespread doubts about how votes were being counted and added together.

Protecting the IReV Portal

The IReV portal was created to make elections more open and easier to check. It allows people to see results from individual polling stations almost as soon as they are available. But during the 2023 presidential election, the website stopped working for long periods, and thousands of results were not uploaded on time. INEC now wants AI to automatically spot possible mistakes before results appear online. For example, the system could flag numbers that do not add up, such as differences between the number of voters approved to vote and the total number of votes recorded.

Election experts say automatic checks could greatly reduce mistakes made by people and intentional changes to results. These problems can happen when officials collect and add up votes at ward and local government levels. INEC has also spent money improving the computer servers that run the portal so they can handle the huge number of people expected to use it at the same time on election day. The AI tools are also expected to watch for distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. These attacks flood a website with so much traffic that it stops working. Cybersecurity experts have warned for years that government-linked groups or other groups could use these attacks to shut down the portal when election results are being collected.

What AI Will Not Be Allowed to Do

Although INEC wants to use more automatic technology, it says there are clear limits to what AI can do in elections. Professor Amupitan clearly stated that computer programs will not decide who wins the 2027 elections. He stressed that people will remain in charge and that election laws must always be followed. This statement was meant to reduce fears that computer programs people cannot easily understand could secretly change vote totals or hide information about certain groups of voters.

INEC says AI will only help check results and protect its systems. It will not have the power to make final decisions about election disputes. If AI finds something that looks wrong, election officials will still need to check it themselves. If necessary, special election courts, called election petition tribunals, will decide how to resolve the problem. This approach combines computer technology with human decision-making. INEC hopes to use the speed and accuracy of AI while still following Nigeria’s Constitution and election laws. People, following the law, will continue to make the final announcements of election results, not computers.

Opposition Groups Do Not Trust the Plan

Major opposition groups have quickly raised doubts about INEC’s AI plans. The Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) and the Obidient Movement have publicly rejected the proposal. They say they do not trust the technology INEC uses. Critics point to earlier disagreements about the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), which is used to check voters. They also mention claims made by independent data analysis companies about unusual information in the IReV portal’s metadata during the last elections. Metadata is extra information stored with digital records.

These opposition groups worry that AI could be used to secretly change election results instead of making elections more open. They want independent experts and civil society groups to be able to inspect the technology. They say the computer code behind the AI and the exact rules it uses to check results should be open for public examination. They also want independent experts to test the system for security weaknesses by trying to find ways to break into it. Without these checks, they fear AI could make results decided in advance appear fair and correct simply because a computer system approved them. This disagreement shows how serious the lack of trust has become. For opposition groups, using advanced technology does not automatically mean an election is honest or fair.

Government Rules and Public Oversight

Civil society organizations and technology supporters are asking for strong rules to control how AI is used in elections and other democratic activities. Experts at the Abuja forum warned that AI could put voters’ private information at risk or treat some groups unfairly if there are no clear rules for protecting data and holding those responsible for AI decisions accountable. The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and the National Assembly are expected to face pressure to create rules explaining exactly what AI can and cannot do in managing elections.

Another major concern is money. Powerful AI systems and strong cybersecurity systems are expensive to install and maintain. INEC’s budget is already being closely examined by lawmakers and the public. People want to know how the commission will pay for these ongoing improvements without taking money away from other important election tasks. These include delivering sensitive election materials to places that are difficult to reach. As the 2027 elections get closer, INEC must improve its technology while also trying to win back the trust of voters who have serious doubts about the commission. Whether the AI plan succeeds will depend on more than how advanced the software is. It will also depend on whether INEC allows independent experts to carefully test and check its systems well before voting begins.

International election observers, including teams from the European Union and the African Union, have also said they plan to examine how ready INEC’s technology is for the elections. Their early reports are expected to pay close attention to how openly INEC chooses and buys its AI systems. They are also expected to look at whether INEC can show representatives of political parties that the technology works reliably. If these important groups in Nigeria and abroad do not support or trust the changes, people may see the technology upgrades as improvements in appearance only, without fixing the deeper problems in how election results are collected and added together.