INEC: We’ve completed 9 of 14 electoral milestones for 2027

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has completed nine out of 14 major statutory activities for the 2027 general elections, with Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan disclosing this during a meeting with a pre-election fact-finding mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja. The ECOWAS delegation, led by former Sierra Leone Vice-President Victor Bockarie Foh and Dr Abbas Chernor Bundu, assessed INEC's readiness for the elections.

Nine completed milestones include the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, displaying the Preliminary Register of Voters nationwide, uploading the preliminary register on an online portal, and reaching 103 million registered voters. The 2027 elections will be held on January 16 for the presidential and National Assembly elections, and February 6 for governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections.

INEC has adopted a field-based approach through zonal readiness assessments across the six geopolitical zones and deployed the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for biometric accreditation. The commission also strengthened staff welfare by approving the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS) and increasing state operational overheads by 150%.

INEC is collaborating with security agencies under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to ensure election security. ECOWAS delegation head Victor Bockarie Foh emphasized the importance of strict compliance with electoral processes to ensure the credibility of the elections.