*Says ”What We Have Now Is Not The Final Voters’ Register, Says Comprehensive Register Will Be Released About One Month To 2027 Polls”
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The Independent National Electoral Commission has assured Nigerians that there is no need for apprehension over the voters’ register ahead of the 2027 general elections, saying the comprehensive register will be released to political parties and the public about one month before the elections.
INEC’s Director of Information and Communication Technology, Lawrence Bayode, gave the assurance in Abuja at a summit organised to unveil a hackathon for artificial intelligence innovators developing technological tools for the electoral process.
Bayode also addressed concerns arising from the technical problem experienced during the 2023 presidential election, insisting that the incident was neither a cyberattack nor a capacity failure, but a technical glitch.
“It wasn’t hacking. It was actually a glitch,” Bayode said.
Explaining what constituted a glitch, the INEC ICT Director said the problem occurred when a system that had been designed to operate in a particular manner failed to function as intended.
“And I’ve said over and over again, people will ask you what is a glitch, and I’ll tell them a glitch is when you design something to work in this way and the thing just refused to work the way you have designed it to work. That is a glitch, and that was what happened in 2023,” he said.
Bayode stressed that the electoral system was not hacked during the 2023 incident.
According to him, the problem was also not caused by insufficient system capacity.
“So it wasn’t — the system was not hacked. It wasn’t a capacity problem. It was just a glitch,” he said.
When asked whether the problem would recur during the 2027 elections, Bayode responded emphatically in the negative.
“Of course, of course, of course,” he said when asked whether it would not happen again.
According to him, INEC had improved the system after the 2023 experience and had not encountered the same problem again.
“I think after it, it has never happened again. I think we improved on the system,” he said.
Turning to the voters’ register, the ICT Director clarified that the register presently available should not be regarded as the final register that will be used for the 2027 general elections.
He said the Commission was still working through the process required before a final register could be released.
“The voters’ register, I think, as soon as it is released, I think it is a month to the general election when the register will be released to the political parties and the public,” Bayode said.
He emphasised that the version currently available is not the final register.
“What we have now, it’s not the final register,” he said.
Bayode explained that INEC had already provided an opportunity for members of the public to scrutinise the register through the claims and objections process.
According to him, the process allows citizens to identify persons whose names appear on the voters’ register but who, for legitimate reasons, should not be on it.
“What INEC has done, I think some weeks back, is for people to go and do claims and objections. If you see someone who is on the register that is not supposed to be there, you will submit your objection to that,” he explained.
The INEC ICT Director said such objections would not automatically result in the removal of a person from the register, as the Commission would first have to verify and confirm the complaint.
He said that where an objection is confirmed following the necessary examination, the affected entry would be removed from the voters’ register.
“INEC will remove such person after confirmation and after investigation will remove such from the register,” Bayode said.
According to him, it is after the conclusion of the claims and objections process and the necessary verification that the register will be formally made public.
“So it is after then the register will now be declared publicly,” he stated.
Bayode’s comments were made against the backdrop of public concerns over both the integrity of the voters’ register and the reliability of INEC’s election technology ahead of the 2027 polls.
His central assurance was that the technical problem experienced in 2023 did not result from hacking or inadequate capacity and that improvements subsequently made to INEC’s system would prevent a recurrence.
He also sought to reassure Nigerians that the voters’ register is still undergoing the required scrutiny and clean-up process, with objections to questionable entries to be investigated before the Commission produces and releases the comprehensive register to political parties and the public about a month before the general elections.
The remarks came as INEC explores the use of artificial intelligence and other technological innovations in election administration through the hackathon unveiled at the Abuja summit.
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