2027: INEC warns officials against partisanship, announces date for new PVC collection

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has taken its 2027 General Election readiness assessment to the North-west, with the commission’s Chairman, Joash Amupitan, directing officials to close operational gaps, strengthen neutrality and ensure no avoidable weakness undermines the credibility of the forthcoming elections.

Mr Amupitan, a professor, gave the charge on Monday in Kaduna at the North-west Zonal Interactive Meeting with Staff and Readiness Assessment for the 2027 General Election.

The engagement is part of INEC’s six-zone national tour aimed at assessing the commission’s preparedness for the elections, identifying challenges confronting its field operations and developing practical solutions ahead of the polls.

Declaring the zonal engagement open, Mr Amupitan said the commission’s presence in Kaduna was not merely an administrative exercise but part of efforts to strengthen the foundations of the country’s electoral process.

He said election success was ultimately determined at the grassroots, particularly at Local Government Areas, Registration Area Centres and polling units where electoral officials interact directly with voters.

“The true success of any election is not decided solely in the meeting rooms of our headquarters in Abuja. It is decided in the field,” he said.

He urged staff to use the engagement to present practical challenges affecting election administration in their respective areas and work with headquarters to develop solutions before election day.

Mr Amupitan said the commission was building on lessons from recent elections while preparing for the larger national assignment in 2027.

He warned electoral officials against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, stressing that the neutrality and professionalism of field personnel would be critical to public confidence in the electoral process.

The chairman said three phases of Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) had produced 10,772,421 new registrations, subject to Automated Biometric Identification System verification.

He called for the elimination of PVC distribution bottlenecks at the Local Government Area level so that eligible citizens would not be disenfranchised because of logistics.

He also disclosed that INEC was refining its technological systems, including voter verification and result transmission processes, as well as its Result Management Systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A.

The commission, he said, was also implementing a “Zero-Failure” approach to logistics, covering early deployment of materials, movement, security coordination and training of ad-hoc personnel.

Earlier, in his welcome remarks, the Supervising National Commissioner for Kaduna, Kudu Haruna, said the zonal meetings were conceived to enable the chairman and other members of the commission’s leadership to directly engage staff across the country despite the demanding schedule and limited time available before the 2027 elections.

He said the Kaduna leg of the exercise began with a courtesy visit by the chairman to the Emir of Zazzau and Chairman of the Kaduna State Council of Traditional Rulers.

According to him, the visit provided an opportunity for INEC to brief the traditional ruler on preparations for the 2027 elections and seek the support of traditional institutions in mobilising eligible Nigerians to participate in the electoral process.

He said the chairman informed the Emir that collection of newly issued Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) would commence as scheduled on 9 October and appealed to traditional rulers to encourage eligible citizens to collect their cards and exercise their constitutional right to vote.

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Mr Haruna expressed confidence that the Kaduna engagement would help the leadership and management of the commission to further strengthen election administration ahead of the 2027 national polls.

The Director of Planning and Monitoring, Helen Ajayi, said the purpose of the zonal exercise was to assess the level of preparedness of states and identify operational challenges before the elections.

She added that the sessions were also aimed at ensuring that staff across the zone remained aligned with the Commission’s Code of Conduct ahead of the elections.

The Directors and representatives from the Voter Education and Publicity, Voter Registry, ICT, Human Resources and Election and Operations departments also made presentations on their respective areas of responsibility and what staff needed to know in preparation for the 2027 elections.

The presentations covered voter registration and PVC collection, including concluded, ongoing and pending activities leading to the 2027 General Election.

The meeting subsequently moved to state-by-state situation reports, with representatives from states across the North-west presenting their respective levels of preparedness and highlighting operational and logistical challenges requiring attention ahead of the polls.