The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that artificial intelligence will not independently determine the outcome of the 2027 general elections, insisting that critical electoral decisions will remain subject to human oversight.
INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN), gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering the keynote address at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, organised in collaboration with Yiaga Africa.
Amupitan said voter accreditation, result collation and decisions concerning candidates would not be fully automated or handed over to autonomous systems, stressing that the choice of Nigeria’s leaders must remain with the electorate.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” he declared.
According to the INEC chairman, human accountability, statutory oversight and judicial review would remain central to every stage of the electoral process.
He warned that the growing use of artificial intelligence had introduced new threats to electoral integrity, particularly through the production and circulation of fabricated videos, cloned audio recordings and other misleading content capable of influencing voters.
Amupitan said the challenge facing the commission extended beyond traditional concerns about election logistics and the physical security of ballot materials to include attempts to manipulate the information voters receive and the decisions they make.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” he said.
He explained that generative AI had made it easier and cheaper to produce convincing deepfakes, including fabricated videos showing candidates making statements they never made or election officials issuing false instructions.
The INEC chairman warned that such material could be circulated rapidly on social media, potentially misleading voters about candidate withdrawals, election postponements and other critical developments.
He also raised concerns about the impersonation of the INEC chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners and other public officials through fake audio recordings, videos and online accounts.
According to him, such impersonation could be used to spread unauthorised election guidelines, announce false results or discourage eligible voters from participating in the polls.
To address these threats, Amupitan disclosed that INEC had established an Artificial Intelligence Unit within its Information and Communication Technology Directorate. The unit, he said, would use digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics to identify potential threats to the electoral process.
He added that any automated system deployed by the commission for operational support, logistics or database management would undergo rigorous audits to assess its security, fairness and ability to explain its outputs.
The commission is also developing a digital strategy to monitor the electoral information environment and working with technology platforms to support the identification, labelling and correction of AI-generated misinformation relating to elections.
Amupitan called on Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram to take prompt action against unlabelled synthetic media impersonating candidates, election officials and security personnel.
He also urged the platforms to require appropriate disclaimers on political advertisements and restrict political micro-targeting based on sensitive characteristics such as ethnicity, religion and local origin.
Political parties and candidates, he said, should commit to an ethical code of conduct on AI use, including pledges against deploying deepfakes, synthetic impersonation, undisclosed political advertisements and automated bot networks to manipulate voters.
Despite the risks, Amupitan said INEC would not ignore the potential benefits of artificial intelligence in election administration.
He explained that the technology could support logistical planning, improve database management, strengthen cybersecurity and help identify inconsistencies in election result documents.
For instance, AI tools could analyse polling unit result sheets uploaded through the commission’s eEC8A system to flag mathematical inconsistencies, unusual entry patterns and poor-quality images for further administrative review.
Such analysis, he stressed, would support scrutiny rather than replace the statutory process of human result collation.
On election logistics, the INEC chairman said geospatial analytics could help the commission plan the deployment of ad hoc personnel, vehicles, boats and sensitive election materials to 176,846 polling units across the country before voting begins.
He said the 2027 general elections would involve more than 103 million registered voters across Nigeria’s 774 local government areas, making effective planning and institutional safeguards essential to the credibility of the exercise.
Amupitan also disclosed that INEC had completed 10 of the 14 major operational milestones under the Electoral Act 2026, according to his address at the forum.
The two-day event brought together electoral officials, political party representatives, civil society organisations, security agencies, technology companies and media practitioners to examine how artificial intelligence could affect the conduct and credibility of the forthcoming elections.
Among those in attendance was Abdoulaye Sylla, chairman of Senegal’s electoral commission and chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States Network of Electoral Commissions.
Amupitan maintained that technology should support democracy rather than take control of decisions that belong to citizens.
He said algorithms could analyse data and identify patterns, but they lacked the civic responsibility and constitutional authority required to determine who governs Nigeria.
“On election day in 2027, it will be the thumbprint of the Nigerian citizen, guided by their own will and their own hopes, that decides our future,” he said.
The commission’s position is that AI may assist with election administration and the detection of irregularities, but critical decisions must remain subject to human judgment and the legal safeguards governing Nigeria’s electoral process.
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