By Mercy Peter
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has called for stronger regional cooperation among electoral management bodies in West Africa to improve electronic transmission of election results, strengthen cybersecurity and enhance the integrity of electoral processes ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, made the call on Tuesday in Abuja while receiving a delegation of the ECOWAS Network of Electoral Commissions (ECONEC), led by the Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division and Permanent Secretary of ECONEC, Mr. Serigne Ka.
Amupitan said electoral commissions across the sub-region needed to strengthen the exchange of technical expertise and practical experience to address common challenges in election administration.
He identified electronic result transmission, records management, logistics, risk assessment, personnel training and election planning as critical areas requiring increased collaboration among member commissions.
The INEC chairman also advocated preventive regulations for political parties to improve compliance with electoral rules and reduce disputes that could undermine electoral processes.
He said regional cooperation should extend to responsible media engagement, electoral security and the promotion of inclusive participation, particularly for vulnerable groups and persons with disabilities.
Amupitan further emphasised the importance of institutionalising post-election reviews and follow-up missions to ensure that recommendations from electoral assessments were implemented.
According to him, electoral bodies must prioritise identified recommendations, monitor their implementation and provide technical support where necessary to strengthen institutional performance.
The meeting also focused on the adoption of guidelines for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in electoral processes, following a two-day validation exercise by ECONEC in Abuja.
The guidelines were developed by a working group established after the network’s symposium on AI and election integrity held in Dakar, Senegal, in November 2025.
Amupitan said electoral institutions needed to embrace technological developments while establishing safeguards against potential abuse.
He argued that the growing integration of AI into digital systems meant electoral commissions could no longer afford to ignore its implications for election administration and security.
“A lot of people are very skeptical about the use of AI because of the dangers inherent in it,” he said, adding that the focus should be on developing the technical capacity to prevent the technology from being used against institutions and citizens.
He identified voter registration and public information services as areas where AI could support electoral administration, particularly by helping commissions respond to citizens’ enquiries and provide information on frequently asked questions.
However, he stressed that public trust must remain central to the deployment of technology in elections.
The INEC chairman said the discussions were timely as Nigeria prepares for the 2027 general elections, with the presidential and National Assembly polls scheduled for January 16, 2027, and the governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections slated for February 16, 2027.
He noted that the commission’s preparations were guided by the Electoral Act 2026 and its regulations and guidelines.
Earlier, Ka said the delegation visited Nigeria to validate ECONEC’s draft guidelines on AI, developed in response to concerns about the technology’s growing influence on electoral integrity.
He explained that participants at the November 2025 symposium agreed to establish a working group to develop a common framework for managing AI in election administration.
According to him, the working group subsequently held meetings and produced the draft guidelines, which were validated and adopted at the Abuja meeting.
Ka said the exercise brought together participants, including information technology experts, to ensure that the guidelines reflected the technical considerations involved in deploying AI in electoral processes.
He noted that Nigeria had already begun working on AI-related issues within its electoral system, making the exchange of practical experiences among member commissions particularly important.
“Now that the guidelines have been adopted, we are going to see now how in the sub-region we are going to use AI in our electoral processes,” he said.
The ECONEC official acknowledged that AI had become an enduring feature of the technological landscape, adding that the challenge was to determine how electoral institutions could manage its use effectively.
He also conveyed the apologies of ECONEC’s newly elected chairman, Mr. Abdoulaye Sylla, who is the chairman of Senegal’s electoral commission and was unable to attend the meeting.
Ka thanked Amupitan and other INEC officials for receiving the delegation and called for support from the wider international community to facilitate the implementation of the guidelines.
