INEC schedules nationwide mock accreditation Nov 28 to test 2027 election tech
INEC will conduct a nationwide mock accreditation on November 28, 2026, simulating the presidential election to test upgraded BVAS devices and electronic result transmission ahead of the 2027 general elections. Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan announced this Thursday at Chatham House in London, stating the exercise will verify both accreditation and result transmission systems function correctly across all states.
The Commission has procured additional BVAS machines and reduced the maximum voters per device from 1,250 to 850—polling units exceeding this threshold will receive multiple units. Climate-controlled storage facilities are being built nationwide to address heat-related malfunctions that plagued the 2023 elections. INEC considered new technology but opted to upgrade existing infrastructure given the timeline.
Technical safeguards now prevent inaccurate results or over-voting figures from uploading to the IReV portal. Amupitan identified collation centres—not polling units—as the core weakness in 2023, where inconsistent results were posted. The new system blocks flawed results at source, making collation a transparent formality.
Voter register cleanup continues: NIN integration began September 2026, and October's biometric audit pushed the register past 103 million with 10.77 million new registrations.
Will these upgrades restore confidence in Nigeria's electoral technology, or does the collation centre fix address the right problem?