2027: We need our full budget to ensure seamless polls, INEC cries out

The Independent National Electoral Commission INEC has asked the Federal Government to promptly release the remaining part of its budget, saying it is needed to deliver the 2027 General Election seamlessly.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash O. Amupitan SAN, made the appeal on Tuesday at a World Press Conference and National Stakeholders’ Meeting in Abuja, held to mark 100 days to the first ballot.

“We expect the prompt release of the remaining budget to ensure seamless execution of the remaining activities,” Amupitan said.

He, however, acknowledged that “the Federal Government has maintained its commitment to democratic governance through the timely release of statutory budgetary allocations to the Commission.”

According to him, the funds have enabled INEC to “meet international vendor obligations, finance the production of critical election technology, upgrade physical infrastructure, and sustain multi-stakeholder operational deployments nationwide.”

‘EU has no candidate’

The Ambassador of the European Union EU to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States ECOWAS, Mr Gautier Mignot, backed the call, urging all actors “to facilitate as much as possible the work of INEC, not least from a budgetary point of view.”

“This is a Herculean task,” Mignot said.

He also made clear where the EU stands. “Ours is a friendly partnership, respectful of Nigerian sovereignty. We don’t impose any view or orientation. And needless to say, we don’t support specific candidates or parties,” he said.

Mignot said the EU would deploy an electoral mission of experts to follow the run-up to the election, the conduct of the ballot and its aftermath, and “come back in due time with recommendations.”

AI integration

On technology, Amupitan disclosed that INEC has set up a dedicated Artificial Intelligence AI Division within its Information and Communication Technology ICT Department.

He said, “Automated AI auditing tools are being integrated into our results verification process under a five-pillar AI Governance Framework, operating under mandatory human oversight. ” A governance policy, he added, “is being finalised by the Commission.”

The chairman said INEC is also integrating “AI-driven anomaly detection tools to monitor database traffic and shield our public portals against cyber intrusions or unauthorised alterations.”

Amupitan warned that generative AI, voice cloning and deepfake videos “now make it cheap to fabricate the voices of election officials, doctored result sheets and fake letterheads, and to spread them faster than they can be verified.”

He urged the media to set up fact-checking desks and verify with INEC before publishing. “In national elections, it is far more important to be right than to be first,” he said.

1.4m ad hoc staff

On manpower, the chairman said INEC will need 707,384 ad hoc personnel for the Presidential and National Assembly elections on January 16 and the same number for the Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on February 6.

“That is a total of 1,414,768 engagements across 176,846 polling units, compared with about 1.2 million in 2023,” he said.

The bulk of the workforce will again come from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Amupitan recalled that in 2023, “more than 70 per cent of our ad hoc staff, nearly 850,000 people, were corps members and student volunteers.” He said the INEC Portal for Recruitment of Election Staff opened on September 18 and closes at midnight on November 18.

The chairman said the National Register of Voters now stands at 103 million, following the registration of 10,772,421 new voters in three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration. The register will be displayed for public scrutiny from October 9 to 15, while distribution of Phase 1 Permanent Voter Cards PVCs to local government centres begins on Friday, October 9.

He added that 18 of the 22 registered political parties submitted candidates for the presidential election.

Amupitan disclosed that INEC received the certified true copy of the Supreme Court judgment in INEC v. Zenith Labour Party only on Tuesday morning and is reviewing it.

The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Electoral Matters, Hon. Adebayo Balogun, said the committee had written INEC “to enforce the judgment of the Supreme Court on the Section 74 of the Electoral Act.”

“Just like the governors who decide or shy away from signing death warrants, which is their right and duty, INEC too is also mandated to take action where necessary,” Balogun said.

The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Electoral Matters, Sen. Simon Lalong, said “the credibility of an election is the responsibility” of political parties, candidates, security agencies, the media, civil society and voters.

Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) Francis Idu of the Police Mobile Force, who represented the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Olatunji Disu, said clearance operations were ongoing in Kogi, Niger, Benue and Taraba states “to quell the various crisis points and ensure there is social harmony for the election.”

The National Chairman of the Inter-Party Advisory Council IPAC, Yusuf Mamman Dantalle, commended INEC over the Osun State governorship election but warned its officials “not to take sides with any political party or any candidate.”

He asked INEC to “engage more before election with the political parties” and told stakeholders, “This election will come and go, but Nigeria will remain.”