INEC will deliver free, credible, inclusive elections in 2027, says Chairman Amupitan

"We should not forget that INEC is just an integral part of the election. The police are part of it, the army is part of it, all these military and paramilitary people are part of it, and civil society is the number one part of it. Everybody, including the president, the politicians, and the people who are going to vote, is part of this electoral process.

"Everybody is part of it. Which means from the time the timetable is out to when the notice of election is given to the particular day we actually do the voting, counting, and announcing the winner, everyone who does one thing or the other is part of this process. So we're not here from my own understanding, we are not here to see how INEC has been doing badly.

"We're here to say this is what we think that we, all of us here, if we do it, Nigeria will be good in 2027. So thank you, welcome, let's sit and discuss and pave the way we want to go, decide what we think, discuss it, and come out with what we think Nigerians should improve the electoral process," Amupitan said.

The Chairperson of the Africa Electoral Justice Network (AEJN), Judge Boosie Henry Mbha, urged Nigeria and other West African countries to build strong, preventive electoral systems ahead of future polls, warning that democracy erodes quietly when institutions fail to act with integrity.

Delivering a keynote address themed “Building an Ecosystem for Democratic Development: The Path towards Credible Elections in West Africa,” Mbha described elections as constitutional processes that must be anchored on law, transparency, and accountability, not mere political events held at periodic intervals.

He said credible elections should be understood as an interconnected ecosystem in which security, campaign finance regulation, and results management function as mutually reinforcing pillars.

“Elections are not solitary events. They are a delicate web where security, finance, and transparency must coexist,” he said, adding that the legitimacy of elections depends not only on outcomes but on strict adherence to constitutional and statutory frameworks.

Mbha stressed that contestation is inherent in democracy, but the true test lies in whether the systems that regulate disputes are coherent, transparent, and enforceable. Electoral integrity, he argued, should be treated as a legal obligation rather than a political aspiration.

Drawing from South Africa’s experience, Mbha outlined reforms undertaken by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), particularly in the area of election security. He said the country shifted from reactive crisis management to an intelligence-led, integrated model that brings security agencies under a coordinated operational structure well ahead of Election Day.

Security planning, he noted, must begin long before voting and must focus on protecting the constitutional right of citizens to vote, rather than intimidating them. He also highlighted the enforcement of an electoral code of conduct, under which politically motivated violence can result in swift sanctions, including the disqualification of candidates.

On campaign finance, Mbha said electoral integrity extends beyond ballot administration to how political actors are funded. Weak or opaque funding systems, he warned, distort competition and undermine public trust.

He referenced South Africa’s Political Funding Act, which came into operation in 2021, as a step toward transparency and accountability. The law mandates disclosure of large private donations, imposes annual donation caps, and requires audited financial records from political parties. However, he acknowledged ongoing challenges, including enforcement gaps and limited public awareness.

“Spending limits without monitoring invite circumvention. Disclosure without verification invites concealment,” he said, underscoring the need for independent audits and enforceable sanctions.

Turning to election results management, Mbha described the period between the close of polls and the announcement of results as the most vulnerable stage of any election. He called for robust documentation, digital safeguards, transparent collation, and independent audit mechanisms to ensure verifiability.

“If the process is not transparent, the result is not legitimate,” he said.

He added that where technology is deployed, its procurement, testing, and application must be open to scrutiny, with stakeholders given the opportunity to understand and verify its reliability before it is used in live elections.

While affirming the critical role of the judiciary in upholding constitutional principles and ensuring due process, Mbha cautioned that courts cannot administer elections or replace sound institutional design.

“Courts are not architects of electoral systems. They are guardians of legality within them,” he said, emphasizing that it is voters, not judges, who ultimately determine who holds public office.

Mbha warned against unconstitutional changes of government across parts of Africa, noting that such developments undermine democratic consolidation and regional stability.

He said Nigeria’s conduct of its 2027 general elections would carry significant implications for West Africa and the continent at large, given the country’s influence in the region.

“Democracy does not collapse in a single dramatic moment,” he said. “It erodes when systems weaken, when transparency fades, and when accountability becomes selective.”

He said that sustainable electoral reform must be preventive, institutionalised, and measurable. According to him, when security protects rather than intimidates, when money in politics is regulated rather than concealed, and when results are verified rather than doubted, public confidence in democracy will be strengthened.

The Executive Director of Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI), Bukola Idowu, raised concerns over campaign finance breaches, election security gaps, and inconsistencies in result management, warning that failure to address the issues could further erode public trust in Nigeria’s electoral process.

Idowu said KDI’s latest review focused on three critical pillars of election credibility: election security, campaign financing, and ballot integrity, particularly the accuracy of results uploaded on the Independent National Electoral Commission’s Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

According to him, the organisation examined uploaded results to assess consistency between figures declared at polling units and those reflected on the IReV portal. He said the review uncovered discrepancies, including inconsistencies in the number of registered voters, arithmetic errors, cases of over-voting, and instances of missing ballot records.

“When people download results and begin to see alterations or inconsistencies in addition, it casts a level of doubt on the election,” he said, urging the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to improve its result management processes, especially now that the IReV system has legislative backing.

On campaign financing, Idowu disclosed that KDI’s findings showed that most leading political parties exceeded the spending limits prescribed by law. He called on regulatory bodies mandated to monitor political finance to enforce compliance and sanction violators.

“It appears political parties are doing whatever they like in terms of spending and meeting deadlines, with little supervision,” he noted, adding that regulators should publish their monitoring reports to enhance transparency.

Idowu also stressed that election security remains central to voter participation, warning that violence and insecurity discourage turnout and weaken confidence in the democratic process. He called for stronger collaboration between INEC and security agencies to guarantee peaceful polls.

He expressed hope that addressing the three core areas, security, financial accountability, and result integrity, would strengthen upcoming elections, including those scheduled in Osun and Ekiti states, as well as other off-cycle polls.

“If we can tackle these major aspects, we are likely going to have better elections,” he said.