INEC: Why Nigerians Should Trust Us Ahead Of 2027 Elections – Amupitan

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has urged Nigerians to trust the Commission to deliver free, fair and credible elections in 2027, citing improvements in recent off-cycle elections and new measures to address the shortcomings of the 2023 general elections.

Amupitan gave the assurance on Thursday, November 12, 2026, during a high-level dialogue at Chatham House, London, organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI) under the theme, “Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot.”

Speaking on the trust deficit created by the 2023 presidential election, the INEC chairman acknowledged that the controversies surrounding the exercise had significantly damaged public confidence in the Commission.

“First and foremost, let me speak about what happened in 2023, which resulted in a significant trust deficit for INEC—damage so large that the Commission has not yet fully recovered from it,” he said.

However, he said INEC had used subsequent elections as opportunities to identify operational weaknesses and strengthen its accreditation, voting and result management processes since he assumed office in October 2025.

Amupitan specifically pointed to the Anambra and Osun governorship elections, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections, the Ekiti governorship election and 16 legislative by-elections as evidence of improvements.

“Why must Nigerians trust me? Nigerians must trust me because, number one, I have conducted off-cycle elections—and observers agree that the recent election in Osun State marked a clear improvement,” he said.

He explained that unlike previous experiences in Anambra and Osun, where governorship elections had faced delays in result declaration, the recent polls in both states produced results the day after voting.

The INEC chairman identified insecurity, logistics and result management as the Commission’s three major priorities ahead of the 2027 general elections.

He disclosed that a post-2023 audit by the Commission identified collation centres, rather than polling units, as the major source of serious result management failures.

According to him, INEC has introduced technical safeguards to prevent inaccurate results and figures reflecting over-voting from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).