2027: Era of Ballot Box Snatching, Manual Result Alteration over – INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has assured Nigerians that technological innovations introduced into the country’s electoral process have effectively ended the era of ballot box snatching and manual alteration of election results.

The commission expressed confidence that every valid vote cast in the 2027 general elections will be protected.

INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan (SAN), gave the assurance on Wednesday in Abuja while receiving the Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, during a courtesy visit.

The visit was aimed at strengthening collaboration on voter education ahead of the next general elections.

Despite expressing confidence in the commission’s technological capacity, Amupitan warned that voter apathy and misinformation remain major threats capable of undermining credible elections if left unchecked.

He said the commission was already shifting attention to intensive voter education.

“We need to teach them why their vote matters and how our new legal and technological safeguards protect their choices.

“We must look the rural farmer, the marketplace woman, and the disillusioned urban youth in the eye and explain to them, in the language they understand, that because of the current technological infrastructure, the era of snatching ballot boxes or rewriting results manually is gone,” he said.

The INEC chairman noted that recent elections conducted by the commission demonstrated remarkable operational improvements.

Such improvement, he noted, included widespread deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), prompt uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), and early opening of most polling units.

However, he said those elections also exposed persistent challenges, especially low voter turnout and confusion among many voters over polling unit changes and registration transfers.

According to him, the situation underscores the urgent need for sustained civic engagement well ahead of the 2027 elections.

“This is a clear indicator that while our technology is moving forward, civic familiarity with the evolving system is lagging. It is a loud diagnostic signal that far more needs to be done in the area of intensive, deep-rooted voter education, and it proves that we cannot afford to wait until the eve of the 2027 polls to start talking to our people,” Amupitan said.

He argued that technological advancements alone cannot guarantee credible elections without an informed and actively participating electorate.

“We can purchase the finest BVAS machines, we can optimise the IReV to international standards, and we can map out the most logistical routes for material deployment.

“But all of these technological and administrative triumphs mean nothing if the citizens remain detached, cynical, or completely uneducated about the power of their votes,” he added.

Calling for stronger institutional collaboration, the INEC chairman described the NOA as a strategic partner in promoting democratic participation and advocated a decentralised voter education campaign capable of reaching Nigerians at the grassroots.

He said the partnership should also focus on combating vote-buying, fake news and misinformation, while ensuring NOA officials are adequately equipped with accurate knowledge of INEC’s electoral processes.

“Together, INEC and the NOA must rewrite this narrative. We need to co-create a decentralised, grassroots voter education campaign that goes beyond simply telling people when to vote,” he said, stressing that the collaboration was “an absolute necessity.”

Amupitan further pledged the commission’s support for the initiative, saying INEC was ready to share resources, relevant data and institutional expertise to ensure the partnership succeeds.

Earlier, NOA Director-General Lanre Issa-Onilu described the low turnout of voters during elections as a growing concern, noting that participation remains significantly below the number of registered voters nationwide.

He said the agency had intensified community-based advocacy to encourage greater electoral participation and sought deeper collaboration with INEC to improve public understanding of the electoral process.

“We are going into communities with our advocacy to the people. We both have in our hands civic education and voter education. We humbly seek support from INEC, which we are already having, but we believe it can be better. We need to increase the number of people who come out to vote.

“Those who come out to vote are very low compared to those on the register. We need to even let them know everything beyond the elections to ensure that Nigerians can keep track of cases in court,” Issa-Onilu said.

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