The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will deploy a real-time election readiness tracker to monitor preparations for the 2027 general elections across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The tracker, which will give the commission’s leadership instant access to updates on logistics, recruitment and training of ad hoc staff, technology and other election preparations, is part of efforts to prevent last-minute operational failures ahead of the polls.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, revealed this on Monday in Lagos at a two-day strategic operational workshop for administrative secretaries.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is set to roll out a first-of-its-kind, real-time readiness tracker that will allow the Commission to monitor election preparations across all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory instantly, as the national voter register approaches the historic 100 million mark ahead of the 2027 General Election,” a statement signed by the commission’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs. Victoria Eta-Messi, on Monday, partly read.
According to Amupitan, the workshop will produce a standardized, Excel-based Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template, which will be linked to the commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre dashboard and Election Project Plan.
The INEC boss had historically lacked a dedicated and uniform mechanism for monitoring the operational responsibilities of administrative secretaries across the country.
He stated that the new system would change that by giving the Resident Electoral Commissioners, supervising national commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission, and the headquarters “instant visibility” into the state of preparations.
The tracker, the statement revealed, would cover areas including distribution of election materials, training of ad hoc personnel, and general state-level readiness.
Amupitan said the idea was to move the commission away from its traditional last-minute approach. The chairman described the objective as replacing “reactive panic with proactive management.”
This is as the INEC boss also disclosed that the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, conducted in three phases between August 2025 and July 2026, had recorded a cumulative total of 10,772,421 new registrants, subject to ongoing Automated Biometric Identification System verification.
Amupitan also stated that the Commission’s National Register of Voters was “approaching the 100 million mark,” reaffirming the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that no eligible Nigerian is disenfranchised due to logistical bottlenecks in PVC distribution.
Amupitan noted that Continuous Voter Registration was one of five major operational areas being reviewed at the workshop. The others are logistics and materials management, electoral technology, optimization of ad hoc staff, and financial compliance.
The INEC boss mentioned that the tracker was not being designed merely for the 2027 election cycle, adding that it would serve as a permanent operational and onboarding blueprint for future administrative secretaries.
He mentioned that the commission was drawing lessons from recent off-cycle elections, particularly the Osun State governorship election, where disciplined logistics and functioning technology contributed to what INEC considered a transparent process.
“We are now working to replicate that standard nationally,” Amupitan said, according to the statement. He said the commission had about six months to prepare for the 2027 general election.
The presidential and National Assembly polls are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while the governorship and state House of Assembly elections will be held on February 6.
Speaking on the preparations, the Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Prof. Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as timely while commending the European Union, through its Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria program, for supporting the exercise.
The Secretary to the Commission, Mrs. Rose Oriaran-Anthony, stated that the workshop would ensure that the headquarters and state offices worked from the same Election Project Plan. She added that each state delegation was expected to leave the workshop with a logistics risk register, an ad hoc recruitment and deployment plan, and a stakeholder engagement plan covering the next three months.
Meanwhile, Amupitan has issued a warning to INEC staff that the pressure on the commission ahead of the 2027 election would be enormous. At a separate South-West zonal interactive meeting and readiness assessment in Lagos on Monday, the chairman said the commission’s staff were effectively on the frontline of Nigeria’s democracy. “The eyes of 200 million Nigerians, and the world, are fixed on us,” he said.
The meeting, held at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja, is the beginning of a six-zone tour by the commission to assess its preparedness for the 2027 elections.
Amupitan stated that the exercise was a departure from more than two decades of administrative practice in which zonal preparations were largely handled by headquarters directorates.
He revealed that the real test of INEC’s preparedness would not be found in meeting rooms in Abuja but at local government areas, registration area centers, and polling units across the country. The chairman identified voter apathy, public distrust, and the spread of misinformation and disinformation as major threats to the 2027 elections.
The INEC chair said the competence and conduct of INEC’s field officers would remain the commission’s “strongest defense against false narratives.” The commission said it was also refining its result management systems, including the recently introduced eEC8A, to improve the verification of results from polling units through the national collation center.
Amupitan also warned INEC personnel against partisan conduct and administrative negligence, citing Section 26 of the Electoral Act, which requires relevant electoral and security personnel to take an oath of neutrality.
INEC said the South-West engagement would focus on logistics, technology, security, voter education, recruitment, and stakeholder engagement as preparations intensify for the 2027 polls.
