The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed November 28, 2026, for a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The exercise will test the commission’s upgraded Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), electronic transmission of results and new safeguards designed to prevent inaccurate polling-unit results and figures indicating over-voting from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, announced the date on Thursday during a dialogue at Chatham House in London organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative.
Amupitan said the mock exercise would simulate the presidential election across all states and allow the commission to assess whether its accreditation and electronic results transmission systems were ready for the 2027 polls.
“On the 28th of this month, we will conduct a mock accreditation and voting exercise across all states of the Federation to simulate the presidential election and verify that we have gotten both accreditation and electronic result transmission right,” he said.
The commission’s decision follows an assessment of the 2023 general elections, which, according to Amupitan, identified collation centres as a major source of problems in election result management.
He said INEC had therefore introduced a technical safeguard that would prevent inaccurate results generated at polling units from being transmitted to IReV.
“If a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all,” the chairman said.
The measure is expected to reduce discrepancies between results recorded at polling units and figures subsequently presented during collation.
BVAS gets upgrade
Amupitan said INEC had opted to upgrade its existing electoral technology rather than introduce an entirely new system because of the limited time remaining before the 2027 elections.
The commission is also taking steps to address some of the technical challenges associated with BVAS during the 2023 elections.
According to the chairman, INEC is constructing climate-controlled storage facilities across the states to protect the devices from extreme temperatures.
The commission has also procured additional BVAS machines and reduced the maximum number of registered voters assigned to each device from 1,250 to 850.
Under the new arrangement, polling units with more than 850 registered voters will be provided with additional BVAS devices.
Amupitan said insecurity, logistics and result management remained among INEC’s major priorities ahead of the 2027 elections.
He also acknowledged that controversies surrounding the 2023 presidential election had created a significant trust deficit for the commission.
He said INEC had used subsequent elections, including governorship and legislative polls, to identify and address operational weaknesses ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on February 6, 2027.
