By Gabi Hibbatullah, Abuja
The Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish a complete protocol for managing election outcomes forward of the 2027 normal elections, together with the usage of AI in processing and verifying outcomes.
The discussion board stated the rules ought to cowl the seize of bodily Form EC8A, AI-assisted extraction of outcomes into digital codecs, transmission, verification, collation, decision of discrepancies and audit trails.
The discussion board was collectively convened by Yiaga Africa, INEC, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development and Dataphyte Foundation.
The suggestions had been contained within the final result doc of the AI and Democracy Forum held in Abuja final week, with the theme, “Will Algorithms Determine the 2027 Vote? Safeguarding Nigeria’s 2027 General Election in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
The doc was launched by Yiaga Africa and obtained by LEADERSHIP yesterday.
The discussion board additionally referred to as on INEC to publish an election-specific AI governance framework detailing its proposed functions, information sources, danger classifications, human decision-makers, distributors’ obligations and safeguards earlier than deployment.
It burdened the necessity for clear procurement and impartial verification of know-how distributors’ claims, insisting that human accountability should be maintained at each stage of election administration.
The discussion board additional urged the fee to strengthen the capability of its management and workers in cybersecurity and AI governance, constructing on present coaching initiatives.
It warned towards relying solely on automated techniques to find out the validity of voter registrations or election outcomes.
“Treat AI-flagged duplicate registrations or anomalous results as leads for documented human review, not automatic grounds for deletion, rejection, suspension or declaration,” the doc acknowledged.
It additionally referred to as for corrective and attraction mechanisms to make sure that individuals affected by AI-assisted choices might problem these choices.
On political campaigns, the discussion board urged political events and candidates to signal and adjust to an moral AI code of conduct.
The code, it stated, ought to require disclosure of materially artificial marketing campaign content material and prohibit misleading impersonation, covert manipulation and discriminatory focusing on.
The suggestions additionally positioned obligations on know-how firms and digital platforms to curb the misuse of AI through the electoral course of.
They urged the platforms to implement their know-how accord commitments, prohibit and label AI-generated likenesses of candidates, and make sure the swift removing of artificial impersonation.
The discussion board referred to as for larger transparency in political promoting and stronger content material moderation in Nigerian languages, alongside accessible channels by means of which INEC, civil society organisations and fact-checkers might report violations.
It additionally burdened the necessity to make sure that AI-powered result-aggregation platforms had been correct, clear and auditable.
However, it emphasised that solely INEC has the authorized authority to declare closing election outcomes.
For the media and civil society, the discussion board beneficial establishing digital forensic desks in newsrooms, increasing grassroots AI media-literacy campaigns, and strengthening monitoring of algorithmic transparency and marketing campaign spending.
It additionally urged impartial outcome aggregators and civil society organisations to reveal their methodologies, sources, verification requirements, error-handling procedures and limitations.
On election safety, the discussion board referred to as on safety businesses to strengthen their capability to reply to cyber incidents and conduct digital forensics, topic to clear authorized authority, privateness protections and proportionality safeguards.
It additional urged the judiciary to organize for disputes involving AI-generated proof and artificial media.
The discussion board referred to as on growth companions to maintain assist for digital literacy, infrastructure safety and impartial audits with out stifling native innovation.
It additionally advocated unified West African tips by means of the ECONEC community and the event of a stronger continental proof base on AI in elections.
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