The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, has stated Artificial Intelligence (AI) should not be allowed to find out the outcome of Nigeria’s 2027 general election.
Mr Amupitan stated this on Wednesday in Abuja whereas delivering a keynote handle on the AI and Democracy Forum 2026, organised by Yiaga Africa in partnership with INEC, Microsoft, TikTok, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID), Dataphyte, the MacArthur Foundation, the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) and different companions.
The two-day discussion board, themed “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence,” introduced collectively representatives of electoral commissions from Senegal, Kenya, Gambia, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Togo, in addition to safety businesses, civil society organisations, the media, expertise corporations and college students.
Mr Amupitan stated the discussion board was aimed toward transferring discussions round synthetic intelligence past figuring out dangers to creating sensible responses forward of the 2027 elections.
“Will algorithms decide the 2027 votes?” he requested.
“I consider our gathering here today not merely as an academic exercise or a routine policy consultation. This is a strategic imperative.”
He answered the query himself, saying the selection of who leads Nigeria should stay with the voters.
“No, algorithms is not going to and must not ever decide the 2027 vote.
“2027 votes must be decided by the sovereign people of Nigeria,” he stated.
According to him, AI would however have a major affect on the knowledge surroundings wherein voters make selections and on the administration and safety of elections.
“AI will undeniably shape the information environment in which citizens form their choices, influence the speed and security of electoral logistics, and alter the tactics of both democratic actors and anti-democratic actors,” he stated.
He urged INEC and its companions to make sure that AI was deployed to strengthen the electoral course of quite than undermine it.
“Our task, therefore, at this forum and within the commission, is to ensure that AI remains a servant of democracy, not its master,” he stated.
AI to help election logistics
Mr Amupitan stated the dimensions of Nigeria’s electoral course of made the use of expertise more and more mandatory.
He stated INEC was making ready to handle greater than 100 million registered voters throughout 176,846 polling models in 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for 16 January 2027, whereas the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections are scheduled for six February.
The chairman stated INEC must deploy personnel and delicate supplies to troublesome terrains throughout 774 native authorities areas, together with distant and riverine communities and areas affected by insecurity.
He cited Kabi Ward in Kuje Area Council of the FCT for instance of the logistical difficulties confronted by the fee.
According to him, reaching the realm may take about three hours and there was restricted community protection.
Mr Amupitan stated AI may assist the fee overcome some of these challenges by means of predictive modelling, geospatial evaluation and dynamic routing.
“Machine learning algorithms can analyse historical traffic patterns, weather forecasts, road conditions and security incidents to generate optimal deployment routes for logistic vehicles across the terrains,” he stated.
He added that AI-powered techniques may additionally assist INEC predict demand for non-sensitive supplies, monitor warehouse inventory and establish supply-chain bottlenecks earlier than they have an effect on election-day operations.
Mr Amupitan stated INEC had examined some of these techniques throughout elections carried out since he assumed workplace, including that there had been enhancements within the early deployment of election supplies and graduation of voting.
AI deployed in voter registration, outcomes administration
The INEC chairman additionally listed a number of areas the place the fee had integrated expertise into the electoral course of.
He stated the fee had digitised its candidate nomination course of by means of the INEC Candidate Nomination Portal, which he stated had processed greater than 15,000 nominations from 22 political events forward of the 2027 elections.
He additionally stated INEC had launched on-line voter registration, permitting Nigerians to start the registration course of remotely utilizing digital units.
Mr Amupitan stated the fee had additionally experimented with downloadable voter playing cards, together with through the Osun governorship election, for voters whose playing cards had been misplaced or broken and who had been unable to obtain replacements earlier than the election.
He stated AI may additionally help with detecting anomalies in election outcomes.
According to INEC boss, algorithms may establish mathematical inconsistencies, uncommon patterns and image-quality issues in uploaded polling-unit outcomes earlier than they had been accepted into INEC’s outcomes administration system.
He stated this may complement, quite than change, human oversight and the statutory processes for declaring election outcomes.
Mr Amupitan additionally stated AI was getting used to enhance the voters’ register by serving to the fee establish duplicate biometric data.
“With over 13 million records in our national register of voters, AI-enhanced automated biometric identification systems drastically accelerate deduplication processes, detecting facial and fingerprint duplicates with unprecedented speed and accuracy,” he stated.
INEC establishes AI unit
The chairman disclosed that INEC had established an AI unit inside its Information and Communication Technology division.
He stated the fee was additionally finalising a governance framework for the use of synthetic AI in elections, with help from IFES and different companions.
He stated the framework could be guided by rules together with integrity, transparency, human intervention and public auditing.
Mr Amupitan warned that the identical expertise that would strengthen elections may be exploited to assault electoral techniques and manipulate public info.
He stated INEC’s digital infrastructure, together with its outcomes administration and candidate nomination platforms, may turn into targets for malicious cyber actors.
“Every day we check, working with experts in this area, to detect faults and threats to our systems,” he stated.
He added that AI-powered cyber-security techniques may assist detect denial-of-service assaults, brute-force assaults and different threats to electoral infrastructure.
Yiaga Africa warns towards opaque AI outcome platforms
The Executive Director of Yiaga Africa, Samson Itodo, stated rebuilding public confidence could be one of the most important challenges forward of the 2027 elections.
Mr Itodo stated Nigerians’ mistrust of the electoral course of remained excessive, partly as a result of of the function expertise performed within the 2023 election.
“Just last week, Yiaga Africa issued a national voting intention survey report, where it is obvious that Nigerians doubt the credibility of the process, and that their votes will not count in 2027,” he stated.
The survey was designed to evaluate voter curiosity and participation and establish components that would encourage or discourage Nigerians from collaborating within the elections.
He stated the deployment of expertise alone wouldn’t assure credible elections, stressing that the integrity of these managing the techniques was equally necessary.
“It is one thing to deploy technology; it is another thing for the personal integrity of those managing those technologies to deliver,” he stated.
Mr Itodo additionally raised considerations concerning the rising quantity of AI-powered platforms being developed to combination election outcomes forward of the 2027 elections.
He stated solely INEC had the authorized authority to declare election outcomes and winners, though different organisations may independently combination outcomes for monitoring and oversight.
“We encourage stakeholders to continue to use different tools and platforms to keep an eye on the results process,” he stated.
READ ALSO: 2027: INEC duplicates names of candidates across some political parties
He urged organisations deploying AI for outcomes aggregation to make sure that their techniques had been correct, clear and auditable.
“For us, as an organisation, we’re very open and transparent about the methodologies that we use,” he stated.
Mr Itodo stated organisations utilizing AI in elections must be guided by the rules of integrity, transparency and auditability to stop the expertise from turning into a supply of political instability.
The discussion board is predicted to develop sensible suggestions for governing the use of AI in Nigeria’s electoral course of forward of the 2027 general elections.
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