Posted by Chinenye on Fri 13th Nov, 2026 - tori.ng
INEC has announced plans to test its voting machines and result system across Nigeria on November 28 ahead of the 2027 elections.
(INEC. Photo Courtesy: NALTF)
INEC will hold a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise on November 28, 2026, ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The exercise will test upgrades to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, and the electronic transmission of results.
INEC chairman Joash Amupitan announced the date on Thursday during a dialogue at Chatham House in London.
He said the exercise will copy a presidential election across all states to check that accreditation and result transmission work properly.
He also said INEC has added a safeguard to stop wrong results from reaching its Result Viewing Portal.
If a polling unit result is inaccurate, including figures that show over voting, it will not be uploaded at all.
Amupitan said a review after the 2023 election found that most problems happened at collation centres, not polling units.
Because time is short, INEC chose to upgrade its existing technology rather than bring in a new system.
On BVAS problems seen in 2023, he said INEC is building climate controlled storage across the states to protect the machines from extreme heat.
It has also bought more devices and cut the maximum number of voters per device from 1250 to 850.
Polling units with more than 850 registered voters will get more than one device.
Amupitan said INEC has received a large part of its 2027 budget but is still waiting for the rest.
He expects the balance to be released before the end of November.
Part of the money is meant for hiring and caring for temporary election staff.
He acknowledged that the 2023 presidential election badly damaged public trust in INEC and said the commission has not fully recovered.
He pointed to recent polls, including the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, the FCT area council elections, the Ekiti governorship election and 16 legislative by elections, as lessons that helped INEC find and fix weak spots.
He said results for Anambra and Osun were declared the day after voting.
On claims about his neutrality, Amupitan denied running an account online linked to a controversial political post.
He said an independent forensic review has been carried out and the matter has been referred to the Department of State Services and the Inspector General of Police.
He also said his past work as a lawyer for political clients was done before he was appointed, and that his loyalty is to the Constitution and the Electoral Act.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are set for January 16, 2027.
Governorship and State Assembly elections will be held on February 6, 2027.