INEC Assures Nigerians AI Will Not Control 2027 Election Results

(INEC chairman Joash Amupitan. Photo by Vanguard news)

INEC Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan says artificial intelligence will not decide the 2027 general election.

He spoke on Wednesday at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 in Abuja, organised by Yiaga Africa.

"Algorithms will not decide the vote because the choice of who leads Nigeria belongs exclusively to the Nigerian people," he said.

He said AI should serve democracy and not control it.

He added that faith keeps him steady in the job.

"I've handed over everything to God," he said.

The 2027 election will involve more than 103 million registered voters across 176,846 polling units in 36 states and the FCT.

Amupitan said terrain, insecurity and poor network coverage make logistics hard.

He said INEC has finished 10 of the 14 major activities on its timetable.

He listed several changes. INEC has bought more Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices.

More than 15,000 candidate nominations from 22 parties have gone through its online portal.

It has also started online voter registration and a phased collection of Permanent Voter Cards.

On AI, he said the tool could help plan routes for election materials by checking traffic, weather and security.

It could also check uploaded result sheets for mathematical errors and unusual entries.

However, he said human collation remains the legal standard for declaring results.