By Ajibola Olaide, JKNewsMedia Reporter
NIGERIA’s ELECTORAL commission has pledged to keep artificial intelligence under human oversight during the 2027 General Elections, warning that deepfakes, cloned audio and digital impersonation could undermine voters’ ability to make informed choices.
JKNewsMedia.com reports that the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan (SAN), gave the assurance on Wednesday, 14 October 2026, while delivering the keynote address at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 in Abuja, organised in collaboration with Yiaga Africa.
Addressing the opening plenary, themed “Will Algorithms Decide the 2027 Vote?”, Amupitan said the answer was an unequivocal no, insisting that the choice of who leads Nigeria must remain exclusively with its citizens.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” he said.
The forum, held under the theme “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, comes 92 days before the general elections, as the digital environment presents new challenges for electoral administration and public trust.
Amupitan said INEC’s responsibilities now extended beyond traditional logistical challenges to include managing a digital environment in which artificial intelligence could influence what voters see, how they think and whom they trust.
He cautioned that the disruptive potential of AI required serious attention, particularly its capacity to spread false information and manipulate public opinion during elections.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” he said.
The INEC chairman explained that generative AI had brought the cost of producing convincing deepfakes close to zero, making it easier to create fabricated videos of candidates making statements they never made or electoral officials issuing false instructions.
“If a voter cannot distinguish between truth and a synthetic lie, the foundation of informed consent crumbles,” he said.
He warned that malicious actors could circulate manipulated videos or cloned audio recordings falsely announcing a candidate’s withdrawal, an election postponement or inflammatory ethnoreligious statements. Such content, he said, could spread widely within minutes.
The commission also faces the risk of impersonation, with perpetrators potentially posing as the INEC chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners and other officials to issue fake guidelines, announce unauthorised results or discourage citizens from voting.
To counter these threats, Amupitan disclosed that INEC had established an AI Unit within its ICT Directorate. The unit has real-time digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics expertise to track technical threats and attempts to manipulate information relating to the electoral process.
He said the commission had adopted a foundational policy against fully automating or delegating critical electoral decisions, result collation, voter accreditation and candidate qualification to autonomous systems.
“Human accountability, statutory oversight and judicial review will remain paramount at every stage of the electoral chain,” he said.
Amupitan added that any AI tool or automated system used for logistics, database management or operational support would undergo rigorous audits to establish its explainability, fairness and security before deployment.
INEC is also developing a Digital Strategy to audit the information environment and working with technology platforms to enable the rapid debunking and labelling of AI-generated content relating to elections.
However, the chairman said the commission would not approach AI solely as a threat, arguing that excessive focus on its risks could obscure opportunities to improve election administration and widen participation.
He described the technology as a force multiplier for administrative precision, predictive planning and institutional integrity.
For election logistics, Amupitan said AI-driven geospatial analytics could help the commission deploy ad-hoc staff, vehicles, boats and sensitive materials to 176,846 polling units before 7.30am on election day.
The systems could analyse traffic patterns, weather forecasts, road conditions and security incidents to generate optimal routes. Automated inventory systems could also forecast demand for non-sensitive materials and monitor warehouse stock in real time.
On electoral integrity, he said AI could complement human-led result collation by conducting parallel statistical audits of polling unit result sheets uploaded through the eEC8A. The technology could flag mathematical inconsistencies, unusual entry patterns and image quality defects for administrative review.
He maintained that human collation would remain the statutory standard for declaring election results.
Amupitan also highlighted the use of AI-enhanced Automated Biometric Identification Systems to detect duplicate facial and fingerprint records in the National Register of Voters, which contains more than 103 million records.
He said the technology would help protect the principle of “one voter, one vote”.
The commission also plans to use Natural Language Processing tools to translate voter education materials, polling unit locators and Permanent Voters Card collection guidelines into dozens of indigenous languages. The materials could include audio formats for visually impaired people and citizens with low literacy levels.
Automated tools could further help identify accessibility barriers affecting Persons with Disabilities.
Amupitan said AI-driven threat detection could strengthen the security of INEC’s digital platforms, including the INEC Result Viewing Portal and the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal, by identifying and isolating cyber threats within milliseconds.
He linked the planned innovations to a decade of technological reforms, including the Smart Card Reader, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and the INEC Result Viewing Portal. He said these technologies had eliminated legacy vulnerabilities such as ballot box stuffing, manual accreditation fraud and arbitrary result manipulation.
The chairman disclosed that INEC had digitised candidate nominations, processing more than 15,000 nominations across 22 political parties. The commission had also introduced online voter registration for the first time in Nigeria and was conducting a decentralised, multi-phased Permanent Voters Card collection exercise nationwide.
He added that INEC had procured additional BVAS units and had begun receiving consignments.
Describing the scale of the forthcoming election, Amupitan said the 2027 General Election would be Africa’s largest democratic exercise, involving more than 103 million registered voters across 774 Local Government Areas.
He also disclosed that the commission had successfully completed 10 of the 14 major operational milestones under the Electoral Act 2026.
The INEC chairman stressed that protecting the election from AI-related threats required cooperation beyond the commission.
He called on technology companies, including Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram, to restrict unlabelled synthetic media impersonating election officials, candidates and security personnel. He also urged them to enforce disclaimers on political advertisements and restrict micro-targeting based on ethnicity, religion or local origin.
Amupitan proposed expanding an Electoral Information Integrity Coalition comprising INEC, civil society organisations, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the Nigeria Fact-Checking Coalition, media houses and telecommunications operators.
The proposed network would provide early warnings about viral AI-generated falsehoods capable of affecting the electoral process.
He said INEC would work with the National Orientation Agency, civil society groups and the media to incorporate AI media literacy into voter education, encouraging citizens to “pause, verify, and confirm” before sharing sensational content.
The commission had also introduced the INEC Campus Debate on Nigeria Electoral Process and Democracy in universities, which Amupitan said would engage young people as digital integrity ambassadors.
He urged political parties and candidates to sign an Ethical AI Code of Conduct committing them to avoid deepfakes, synthetic impersonation, dark advertisements and automated botnets.
JKNewsMedia.com also reports that Civil society organisations and development partners, he said, should audit algorithmic transparency and monitor digital campaign spending, while security agencies should develop specialised cybercrime investigation and digital forensics capabilities within the rule of law.
He also called on the judiciary to prepare for new disputes involving AI-generated evidence and urged media organisations to establish internal digital forensic desks to verify user-generated content before publication.
Amupitan said algorithms lacked moral responsibility, civic duty and constitutional obligations.
“They do not have a conscience, they do not have a country, and they do not have a vote,” he said.
“On election day in 2027, it will be the thumbprint of the Nigerian citizen, guided by their own will and their own hopes, that decides our future,” he added.
“INEC’s job is to ensure that the voice of the people is heard clearly, above the noise of the machines.”
He thanked the Economic Community of West African States Network of Electoral Commissions, Yiaga Africa and international partners for supporting the forum.
A bulletin issued states that the two-day event attracted the Chairperson of ECONEC and Chairman of the Senegal Electoral Commission, Mr. Abdoulaye Sylla, alongside INEC National Commissioners, Resident Electoral Commissioners, representatives of election management bodies across Africa, political party leaders, civil society organisations, security agencies, technology firms and media representatives.
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