The Independent National Electoral Commission has warned that artificial intelligence-driven disinformation could undermine the credibility of the 2027 general elections.
The INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, SAN, also disclosed that the commission was conducting a comprehensive audit of its electoral technology systems and considering a mock presidential election ahead of the polls.
Amupitan spoke on Wednesday in Abuja in a keynote address delivered on his behalf by a National Commissioner, Sani Adam, SAN, at the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria.
The conference was themed, “Media, Technology and Elections in Africa: Navigating Digital Disruption and the New Dynamics of Electoral Communication.”
A statement signed by INEC’s Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, said Amupitan stressed the need to treat electoral technology and communication as a single discipline.
He said the credibility of the electoral process increasingly depended not only on the integrity of the ballot, Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and result sheets, but also on how electoral information was understood and trusted by voters.
Amupitan explained that the deployment of BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing Portal was designed to address longstanding concerns about electoral transparency by enabling citizens to view polling-unit results before they were moved to collation centres.
However, he acknowledged that the 2023 general election showed that electoral technology could become a source of public doubt when it failed to perform as expected.
He said electoral legitimacy could only be earned when systems performed reliably, voters understood how they worked and authorities honestly explained any shortcomings.
On preparations for the 2027 elections, Amupitan said INEC was auditing its technology systems, including system redundancy, penetration testing and disaster recovery arrangements.
He added that the commission was considering conducting a mock presidential election to test voter accreditation, result transmission and result viewing under conditions similar to those expected on election day.
The INEC chairman also raised concerns about the increasing use of generative artificial intelligence to produce synthetic audio, videos and images capable of misleading voters.
According to him, AI technology has made manipulated content cheaper to produce and increasingly difficult to detect, with fabricated political content already emerging during recent electoral cycles in parts of West and East Africa.
He warned that the threat went beyond fabricated content to algorithmic microtargeting, which could allow different or contradictory political messages to be directed at specific segments of the electorate.
“The danger lies not only in outright fabrication but also in algorithmic microtargeting, which allows conflicting messages to reach narrow segments of the electorate without a shared factual foundation,” he said.
Amupitan said such content could reach millions of social media users before electoral authorities and fact-checkers had an opportunity to verify or debunk it.
He disclosed that INEC had proposed a substantial budget for technology and election operations, including new accreditation devices to replace those lost or damaged during the last electoral cycle.
The INEC chairman said the commission was still awaiting the full release of the funds, but its Information and Communication Technology team had begun engagements with manufacturers.
He added that preparations for the technology audit and proposed mock election were progressing alongside the budget finalisation process.
Amupitan also outlined a five-point strategy to strengthen INEC’s response to emerging electoral communication challenges.
The strategy includes integrating technology and communication planning, establishing a rapid-response mechanism for countering false information within the same news cycle, proactively communicating known vulnerabilities and safeguards, deepening collaboration with media scholars, fact-checkers and technology platforms, and investing continuously in public media literacy.
He said INEC could no longer afford to treat technology and communication as separate components of election management.
Amupitan urged media professionals, technology experts, scholars, fact-checkers and other stakeholders to collaborate with the commission to strengthen public understanding and trust in the electoral process ahead of the 2027 elections.