2027 polls: Voter register nears 100m — INEC

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LAGOS — Nigeria’s national voter register is approaching the 100 million mark ahead of the 2027 general elections, with the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, recording 10,772,421 new registrants during the latest Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise.

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INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this on Monday in Lagos, saying the commission was also set to deploy a real-time election readiness tracker to monitor preparations across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.

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Amupitan spoke at a two-day strategic operational workshop for administrative secretaries organised by the commission.

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According to a statement issued by INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, the readiness tracker would provide the commission’s leadership with real-time updates on logistics, recruitment and training of ad hoc personnel, electoral technology and other preparations for the 2027 elections.

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The statement said the tracker would be based on a standardised, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template, linked to the commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre dashboard and Election Project Plan.

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Amupitan said INEC had historically lacked a dedicated and uniform mechanism for monitoring the operational responsibilities of administrative secretaries nationwide.

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He said the new system would provide Resident Electoral Commissioners, supervising national commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission and the headquarters with “instant visibility” into the level of preparedness in each state.

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The tracker will cover areas including distribution of election materials, training of ad hoc personnel and general state-level readiness.

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Amupitan said the initiative was designed to move INEC away from its traditional last-minute approach to election preparation, describing its objective as replacing “reactive panic with proactive management.”

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10.7m new registrants

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The INEC chairman said the CVR exercise, conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, recorded 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing verification through the Automated Biometric Identification System.

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He said the National Register of Voters was now “approaching the 100 million mark,” while reaffirming the commission’s commitment to ensuring that eligible Nigerians were not disenfranchised because of logistical problems in the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards.

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Amupitan identified CVR as one of five major operational areas being reviewed at the workshop.

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Others, he said, were logistics and materials management, electoral technology, optimisation of ad hoc staff and financial compliance.

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The chairman said the readiness tracker would not be limited to the 2027 election cycle, but would serve as a permanent operational and onboarding framework for future administrative secretaries.

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He said INEC was drawing lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State governorship election, where he said disciplined logistics and functioning technology contributed to what the commission regarded as a transparent process.

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“We are now working to replicate that standard nationally,” he said.

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Amupitan said INEC had about six months to prepare for the 2027 general elections.

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The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on February 6, 2027.

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The Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as timely and commended the European Union, through its Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria programme, for supporting the exercise.

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The Secretary to the Commission, Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the workshop would ensure that INEC’s headquarters and state offices operated from the same Election Project Plan.

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She said each state delegation was expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad hoc recruitment and deployment plan, and a three-month stakeholder engagement plan.

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INEC begins six-zone readiness assessment

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Meanwhile, Amupitan has warned INEC personnel that pressure on the commission ahead of the 2027 elections would be enormous.

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He spoke at a separate South-West zonal interactive meeting and readiness assessment in Lagos on Monday, marking the beginning of a six-zone tour by the commission to assess its preparedness for the elections.

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“The eyes of 200 million Nigerians, and the world, are fixed on us,” he said.

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The meeting, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, was part of a new approach to zonal preparations, which Amupitan said would move beyond the traditional system in which headquarters directorates largely handled such activities.

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He said the real test of INEC’s preparedness would not be in meeting rooms in Abuja but at local government areas, registration area centres and polling units across the country.

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The chairman identified voter apathy, public distrust, misinformation and disinformation as major threats to the 2027 elections.

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He said the competence and conduct of INEC field officers would remain the commission’s “strongest defence against false narratives.”

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The commission is also refining its result management systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to improve verification of polling-unit results through the national collation centre.

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Amupitan warned INEC personnel against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, citing Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which requires relevant electoral and security personnel to take an oath of neutrality.

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The commission said the South-West engagement would focus on logistics, technology, security, voter education, recruitment and stakeholder engagement as preparations for the 2027 elections intensify.

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