INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, says AI must remain a tool for strengthening Nigerian democracy, warns against deepfakes and digital misinformation.
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash O. Amupitan, SAN, has declared that algorithms will not determine the outcome of Nigeria’s 2027 General Elections, insisting that the sovereign will of the electorate must remain the ultimate determinant of who governs the country.
Amupitan made the declaration at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 in Abuja, organised by INEC in collaboration with Yiaga Africa, under the theme, “Safeguarding the 2027 General Elections in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”
He stressed that artificial intelligence (AI), regardless of its sophistication, must remain a tool for improving electoral administration, transparency and efficiency rather than replacing human judgment.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” the INEC chairman declared, adding that the choice of Nigeria’s leaders belongs exclusively to the Nigerian people.
He, however, acknowledged that AI would significantly influence the information environment, electoral logistics and the strategies employed by both democratic actors and those seeking to undermine the electoral process.
According to him, Nigeria’s 2027 elections will be one of the largest and most complex democratic exercises in the world, involving more than 103 million registered voters across 176,846 polling units in 774 local government areas.
The INEC chairman disclosed that the commission had completed 10 of the 14 major operational milestones stipulated under the Electoral Act 2026. He also highlighted the procurement of additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, the digitisation of candidate nominations and the introduction of online voter registration.
Amupitan identified predictive logistics, route optimisation, biometric database management, automated result-audit assistance, multilingual voter engagement and AI-driven cybersecurity as areas where the technology could strengthen election administration.
He nevertheless emphasised that INEC would maintain human oversight in critical electoral processes, including voter accreditation, result collation and the determination of candidates’ qualifications.
“Human accountability, statutory oversight, and judicial review will remain paramount at every stage of the electoral chain,” he said.
The commission’s chairman also warned that generative AI, deepfakes, synthetic media, targeted digital advertisements, algorithmic bias and automated cyberattacks posed significant threats to electoral integrity.
He cautioned that the manipulation of voters through false information could be as dangerous as technical attacks on election infrastructure.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” Amupitan warned, stressing the importance of protecting citizens from AI-generated misinformation.
To address these challenges, he announced that INEC had established a specialised AI Unit within its Information and Communication Technology Directorate. The unit, he said, would use digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics to identify technical threats and attempts to manipulate electoral information.
Amupitan called on political parties to adopt an Ethical AI Code of Conduct, while urging civil society organisations to monitor algorithmic transparency and digital campaign spending.
He also encouraged security agencies and the judiciary to strengthen their capacity in cybercrime investigations and digital forensics, while calling on media organisations to establish digital forensic desks to verify user-generated content before publication or broadcast.
The INEC chairman further proposed the establishment of an Electoral Information Integrity Coalition involving the commission, civil society groups, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the Nigeria Fact-Checking Coalition, media organisations and telecommunications operators.
The proposed coalition would serve as an early-warning network for detecting and responding to viral AI-generated falsehoods capable of influencing voters.
The forum brought together electoral officials from Nigeria and other African countries, diplomatic representatives, political party leaders, media executives, technology companies, security agencies, development partners and members of the academic community.
Reaffirming the importance of citizens’ participation, Amupitan said the outcome of the 2027 elections would ultimately reflect the choices of Nigerians from different communities and backgrounds.
He maintained that INEC’s responsibility was to ensure that voters could freely express their choices without interference from technology-driven manipulation.
The chairman concluded that the future of Nigerian democracy must be determined by the decisions of a free electorate, guided by the country’s laws and institutions, rather than by the capabilities of artificial intelligence.
