By Emmanuel Oloniruha

Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, assured Nigerians that the Commission has put structures in place to ensure that Artificial Intelligence (AI) serves the democratic process and does not control it.

 

INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mrs Victoria Eta-Messi, quoted Amupitan stating that while delivering his keynote address at the AI and Democracy Forum 2026, held in collaboration with Yiaga Africa.

 

 

Fielding a guiding question of the opening plenary, Amupitan said “algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” explaining that the choice of who leads Nigeria belongs exclusively to the Nigerian people.

 

According to him, the commission is no longer dealing only with the “analogue” challenges of logistics but with a world in which AI can influence what a voter sees, how the voter thinks and how the voter trusts.

 

The INEC Chairman, however, cautioned that a simple “no” should not conceal the disruptive power of the technology.

 

He said that AI would shape the information environment in which citizens form their choices, influence the speed and security of electoral logistics, and alter the tactics of both democratic actors and anti-democratic disruptors.

 

“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” Amupitan said.

 

He said generative AI had reduced to near zero the cost of producing convincing deepfakes, including videos of candidates saying things they never said and of INEC officials giving false instructions.

 

“If a voter cannot distinguish between truth and a synthetic lie, the foundation of informed consent crumbles,” he said.

 

He warned that a well-timed deepfake video or cloned audio recording of a candidate, an election official or a security chief could announce a false candidate withdrawal, a postponement of the election or inflammatory ethno-religious statements, and spread virally within minutes.

 

He added that malicious actors could also impersonate the INEC chairman, Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and other officials to issue fake guidelines, declare unauthorised results or instruct voters to stay home.

 

On the Commission’s response, Amupitan disclosed that INEC had created an AI Unit within its ICT Directorate, equipped with real-time digital monitoring tools to track technical threats and information manipulation targeting the electoral process.

 

He affirmed that no critical electoral decision, result collation, voter accreditation or candidate qualification would ever be fully automated or delegated to an autonomous system.

 

The INEC Chairman further stated that any AI tool or automated system deployed by the commission for logistics, database management or operational support must undergo rigorous audits to guarantee explainability, fairness and security before deployment.

 

He said the commission was also working on a digital strategy to audit the information environment, and was partnering with technology platforms for the rapid debunking and labelling of AI-generated content touching on electoral processes.

 

 

He described AI as a powerful force multiplier for administrative precision, predictive planning and institutional integrity.

 

He added that  AI-driven geospatial analytics could help INEC on early logistics deployment including ad hoc staff, sensitive and non-sensitive materials, by analysing traffic patterns, weather forecasts, road conditions and security incidents to generate optimal routes.

 

On electoral integrity, the INEC chairman said that human collation remained the statutory standard for declaring results.

He added that AI could perform parallel statistical audits on polling unit result sheets uploaded through the eEC8A, flagging mathematical inconsistencies, atypical entry patterns and image quality defects for administrative review.

 

 

The INEC Chairman added that AI-driven threat detection could protect the Commission’s digital platforms, including the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and the INEC Candidates Nomination Portal (ICNP), by identifying and isolating cyber threats in milliseconds.

 

Amupitan said these innovations were building on a decade of technological reforms, including the Smart Card Reader (SCR), the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IReV.

These according to him , has eliminated legacy vulnerabilities such as ballot box stuffing, manual accreditation fraud and arbitrary result manipulation.

Amupitan, however, said that safeguarding the election could not be the responsibility of INEC alone.

 

He called on technology companies, including Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram, to rapidly restrict unlabelled synthetic media impersonating election officials, candidates or security personnel, enforce disclaimers on political advertisements, and restrict micro-targeting based on ethnicity, religion or local origin.

 

He proposed the expansion of an Electoral Information Integrity Coalition comprising INEC, civil society organisations, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the Nigeria Fact-Checking Coalition (NFCC), media houses and telecom operators, to serve as an early-warning network against viral AI-generated falsehoods.

 

According to him, INEC will also work with the National Orientation Agency (NOA), civil society and the media to incorporate AI media literacy into voter education, so that citizens can “pause, verify, and confirm” before sharing sensational content.

 

He urged civil society and development partners to audit algorithmic transparency and track digital campaign spending, while security agencies were asked to build specialised capacity in cybercrime investigation and digital forensics within the bounds of the rule of law.

 

He also advised the judiciary to prepare for novel disputes involving AI-generated evidence, and media organisations to establish internal digital forensic desks to verify user-generated content before publication..