The credibility of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections came under fresh scrutiny on Thursday 12, 2026, as Nigerians living in the United Kingdom confronted the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, outside Chatham House in London, accusing the electoral body of failing to address concerns over the country’s electoral process.
The protesters surrounded a black vehicle believed to be conveying Amupitan as he left the venue, banging on the vehicle and displaying papers and placards while demanding answers over alleged irregularities in the voters’ register.
In a video circulating on social media, one of the demonstrators was heard shouting: “People are angry. This wicked, evil man, you are a criminal. Why are you running?”
The confrontation came shortly after Amupitan addressed a high-level discussion on Nigeria’s democratic trajectory and regional stability beyond the ballot, organised by Chatham House in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI).
The protesters reportedly raised concerns about alleged irregularities in the voters’ register, including claims of artificial intelligence-generated entries, ahead of the 2027 elections.
Their action underscores the growing pressure on INEC to restore public confidence in the electoral process, particularly following the controversies surrounding the 2023 general elections.
Nevertheless, the London confrontation highlights a fundamental challenge facing the electoral body: restoring public trust will require more than assurances, technological upgrades and promises of administrative efficiency.
With the 2027 elections approaching, INEC faces the task of demonstrating that its reforms can withstand scrutiny, prevent manipulation and guarantee that every valid vote is accurately recorded and reflected in the final results.
In a related development where he addressed concerns about the credibility of the previous elections, Amupitan acknowledged that the conduct of the 2023 presidential poll had created a significant trust deficit for the Commission, admitting that INEC had yet to fully recover from the damage.
“First and foremost, let me speak about what happened in 2023, which resulted in a significant trust deficit for INEC—damage so large that the Commission has not yet fully recovered from it,” he said.
However, the INEC chairman maintained that the Commission had learnt from past shortcomings and introduced measures to improve election administration ahead of the next general elections.
He identified security, logistics and result management as the three major priorities of the Commission, noting that its review of the 2023 elections revealed that some of the most serious problems occurred at collation centres rather than polling units.
According to him, INEC has developed additional technical safeguards to prevent inaccurate results, including figures indicating over-voting, from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
“In 2023, there were cases where inaccurate results or results showing over-voting were uploaded to IReV. We have now developed a technical safeguard: if a result is inaccurate at the polling unit, it will not be uploaded to IReV,” he said.
Amupitan added that the new arrangement would eliminate inconsistencies at the source and make the collation process more transparent.
The Commission had considered introducing entirely new electoral technology for the 2027 elections but decided against the move because of the limited time remaining before the polls. Instead, it opted to upgrade and strengthen its existing technological infrastructure.
On concerns about the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), particularly reports of technical failures linked to extreme temperatures and improper storage during the 2023 elections, Amupitan said INEC was taking steps to improve the devices’ reliability.
He disclosed that the Commission was establishing climate-controlled storage facilities across the country to protect its electoral equipment.
INEC has also acquired additional BVAS machines and reduced the maximum number of registered voters assigned to each device from 1,250 to 850. Polling units with more than 850 registered voters will receive additional machines to reduce accreditation delays.
As part of efforts to test the improvements, the Commission announced plans to conduct a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise on November 28, 2026.
Amupitan, who assumed office in October 2025, also defended his leadership record, citing governorship elections in Anambra, Osun and Ekiti States, Federal Capital Territory Area Council elections and 16 legislative by-elections as evidence of progress.
He argued that recent off-cycle elections had demonstrated improvements in the Commission’s administrative capacity, particularly in the timely declaration of results.
According to him, unlike previous exercises that sometimes took several days to conclude, the governorship elections in Anambra and Osun were concluded with results declared the day after voting.
“Why should Nigerians trust me? They should trust me because, first, I have conducted off-cycle elections, and observers agree that the recent election in Osun State represented a clear improvement,” he said.
