The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, has pledged that results from the 2027 general election will be transmitted electronically, while cautioning voters that the commission cannot promise a flawless contest.
Speaking at a televised Citizens’ Town Hall debate on Sunday, Prof Joash Amupitan urged Nigerians to temper expectations even as he insisted the commission had both the will and the capacity to digitise results transmission.
“What Nigerians desire is a perfect election,” Amupitan said. “INEC will strive as much as possible to give this country the best election. However, we may not be able to achieve a 100 per cent perfect election for now.”
The debate, broadcast live on major networks and anchored by Seun Okinbaloye alongside Samson Itodo of Yiaga Africa, drew an array of political and civic leaders. Among them were Nentawe Yilwatda, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress; Nenadi Usman of the Labour Party; former education minister Oby Ezekwesili; and senator Ireti Kingibe.
The discussion centred on the new Electoral Act 2026, the product of nearly three years of consultations between lawmakers, civil society and INEC officials. Amupitan said the commission had pressed during deliberations for electronic transmission of results to be made mandatory — a point of fierce contention after the 2023 general election.
“The original provision that came out of the retreat from the National Assembly was not exactly what you have today,” he said, referring to early drafts of the law. “When INEC came in, we talked of transmission being mandatory. But let us be sincere and honest: the only problem that we had was how to define what we call real time.”
Electronic transmission, he argued, is technically achievable. The greater difficulty lies in infrastructure — particularly in remote terrain where network coverage remains patchy.
To illustrate the challenge, Amupitan pointed to the recent area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory. Of the six councils, five reported on time. But in Kuje, results from Kabi ward were delayed until the following day.
Kabi, he said, is roughly three-and-a-half hours by road from Kuje town, across difficult terrain. Once polling officials entered the ward, they were unreachable by phone. “Nobody could speak to them,” he said, describing a moment of anxiety for the commission. Officials ultimately transported the results physically for collation.
“I don’t see the issue of transmission as really a problem,” Amupitan insisted. “The problem I have seen is the adequacy of the network we have.”
He acknowledged logistical lapses in the FCT poll, some attributable to human error. “Your election can be as good as your logistics,” he said, warning that operational failures risk eroding public trust.
Still, he struck an optimistic note about 2027. Voter awareness, he suggested, has sharpened since 2023, and public demand for accountability has grown louder.
“Elections are the lifeblood of democracy,” he said, invoking Abraham Lincoln’s dictum that “the ballot is more powerful than the bullet”. Transparent processes, he argued, are inseparable from national development.
“Nobody is happy about the classification of Nigeria as an underdeveloped country,” he added. “We want a situation where our process will be able to guarantee the confidence and the transparency that people want to see in their system.”
Whether that confidence can be secured may depend less on legislative ambition than on the prosaic realities of roads, signals and the fragile machinery of election day.
