The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has declared that it has no preferred candidate or favoured political party ahead of the 2027 general elections, warning its officials against partisanship, administrative carelessness and ethical compromises.
The Commission also announced that the nationwide collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) will commence tomorrow, Friday, 9th October 2026, as Nigeria’s National Register of Voters hits a historic 103 million.
The INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner for Lagos State, Prof. Ayobami Salami, who represented the Commission’s Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, disclosed this on Thursday in Lagos while delivering a keynote address at the 10th Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), themed “2027 Elections: Trust, Transparency and Shared Responsibilities.”
Reading the address on behalf of the INEC Chairman, Salami quoted Amupitan as saying: “Under my leadership, the Independent National Electoral Commission stands firm on an unshakeable promise: our sole allegiance is to the Constitution and the law, and our absolute obligation is to the Nigerian people. INEC has no preferred candidate, no favoured political party, and no institutional interest other than protecting the sacred and uncoerced will of the Nigerian voters.”
The Commission warned that partisanship, administrative carelessness or ethical compromises would be met with immediate dismissal and statutory prosecution, stressing that every official must take a binding oath of loyalty and absolute neutrality pursuant to Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026.
“To the voter in a local ward, INEC is not the Chairman in Abuja; INEC is you,” Amupitan was quoted as telling field officers during the North-West assessment in Kaduna.
On the register of voters, the Commission said the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise captured 2,611,266 new voters in Phase One, 4,121,835 in Phase Two, and 3,867,997 in Phase Three, bringing the national register to 103 million.
It said the ICT Department was completing the generation of the official PDF Register of Voters for nationwide display, alongside final synchronisation of CVR data through the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) to eliminate duplicate registrations.
“Having completed the processing and printing of new voter cards using our newly introduced Printable PVC technology, the nationwide collection of Permanent Voters’ Cards will officially commence tomorrow, Friday, 9th October 2026—the day immediately following this conference,” the Commission said.
It appealed to GOCOP and the online publisher community to leverage their platforms to educate, mobilise and direct registered citizens across the 36 states and the FCT to collect their cards at designated Local Government offices and Registration Area centres.
Standing exactly 98 days away from the 16th January 2027 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, the Commission said it had, over the past 14 months, undertaken multidimensional structural, technological and logistical overhauls to build what it called an unassailable foundation for 2027.
It disclosed that the Revised Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2027 General Elections, issued on 26th February 2026, established 14 critical statutory activities, with the Commission currently advancing toward the conclusion of the ninth.
The master timetable, it said, had been converted into an integrated framework across 23 Headquarters Departments and Directorates, 36 State Offices and the FCT, and 774 Local Government Area Offices executing grassroots deployment across over 176,000 polling units nationwide.
On technology, the Commission announced major upgrades to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), including rigorous hardware optimisation, extended battery calibration and software hardening to ensure instant facial and fingerprint accreditation, adding that a nationwide BVAS audit was underway and additional devices had been procured.
It also unveiled an enhanced eEC8A system designed to digitise polling unit result sheets (Form EC8A) directly at the polling unit immediately after counting, with the scanned form cryptographically signed and transmitted simultaneously to a public view portal.
“This ensures complete, end-to-end result visibility that eliminates opportunities for manual alteration at intermediate collation points,” it said, citing successful field deployments in the FCT, Ekiti and Osun off-cycle elections.
The Commission further disclosed that, in partnership with global technology leaders including Google and Microsoft, it had embedded automated Artificial Intelligence data-auditing tools and multi-layered firewalls to shield its databases against cyber intrusions, distributed denial-of-service attacks and unauthorised data injection.
On logistics, it said procurement and physical delivery of non-sensitive electoral materials to all 36 State Offices and the FCT had commenced, while brand-new operational pickup vehicles had been procured and were being distributed to State Offices and LGAs nationwide to resolve transportation bottlenecks, especially in difficult terrains, riverine areas and remote border settlements.
The Commission said it had instituted a rigorous Zonal Readiness Assessment and Staff Engagement programme across all six geopolitical zones, with thorough field assessments already completed in the South-West and North-West, while comprehensive training programmes were underway across all cadres of election staff.
It also announced that the Commission operationalised the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS) on 1st January 2026, followed by a 150 per cent increase in State Office operational overheads on 1st July 2026.
On voter education, the Commission said it had launched an intensified public enlightenment campaign across traditional, digital and grassroots channels, with customised outreach networks for women and youth organisations, persons with disabilities, and hard-to-reach and underserved communities.
Proposing a three-point operational pact with GOCOP, the Commission said INEC would provide dedicated digital media fact-verification during the election period, giving journalists direct, real-time access to verify field reports, security incidents or technical issues before publication.
It also requested GOCOP to enforce strict internal sanctions against member platforms or affiliated channels that broadcast unverified polling unit results, altered result sheets or incendiary speculative commentary, and invited members to partner with the Commission in amplifying public awareness for the nationwide PVC collection exercise.
Condoling GOCOP over the passing of its former President and Publisher of The Eagle Online, Mr. Dotun Oladipo, the Commission described him as a patriot, a refined media executive and a courageous champion of ethical online publishing.
It urged publishers, editors and media leaders to see themselves as the primary storytellers and narrative custodians of modern Nigerian democracy, adding: “As PVC collection opens across the country tomorrow, let us write a definitive chapter of operational excellence, journalistic integrity, civic maturity, and unassailable institutional trust together.”
