By Daniel Oluwatobiloba Popoola
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received a delegation from the African Union (AU), led by former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, His Excellency Demeke Mekonnen, as part of efforts to strengthen electoral cooperation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
The delegation was received on a courtesy visit to the Commission’s headquarters by the Acting Chairman of INEC, Professor Rhoda Gumus, who represented the INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN.
The visit, which forms part of the AU’s pre-Election and Needs Assessment Mission to Nigeria, is scheduled to run from Sunday, 13 September, to Saturday,19, 2026.
Speaking during the engagement, Mekonnen said the mission was designed to assess Nigeria’s electoral preparations, identify potential gaps and recommend measures to support a successful election.
He said the AU was particularly interested in voter registration, the application of electoral technology, logistics, funding, inclusion, transparency, electoral disputes, security and result management, noting that the pre-election phase was critical to the credibility of the entire process.
“We want to facilitate support and identify gaps, and for possible remedies and corrections for the successful election process,” Mekonnen said.
Responding, Gumus conveyed the compliments of the INEC Chairman and described the mission as timely and significant to Nigeria’s democratic development.
She said Nigeria and the African Union shared a commitment to democratic standards, institutional integrity and credible electoral governance across the continent.
She disclosed that INEC was preparing for the 2027 general elections on an unprecedented scale, with the voter population approaching 100 million, 176,846 polling units, and a workforce exceeding 1.4 million personnel, adding that recent off-cycle elections had provided opportunities to test reforms under the new electoral legal framework.
Gumus further highlighted the Commission’s deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), result viewing through the IReV portal, and inter-agency security coordination as measures to strengthen electoral administration. She disclosed that INEC was collaborating with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), through the Continuous Voter Registration Portal, to audit, verify and clean the voter register.
Despite these measures, she acknowledged that Nigeria’s geographical size and complexity continued to pose technological, logistical and political challenges.
“Electoral integrity is a multi-sectoral endeavour, and international technical support remains vital to bridging operational gaps,” she said.
She identified areas where AU technical support would be valuable, including digital training for ad-hoc staff, e-learning tools, ICT simulations, election-monitoring systems, disinformation countermeasures, AI-driven deepfake detection and strategic communication, and called for assistance in strengthening inclusion and gender-mainstreaming frameworks for persons with disabilities, internally displaced persons, women and other underrepresented groups.
Gumus assured the delegation of INEC’s full transparency and cooperation as it engages with political parties, civil society organisations, security agencies, media executives and development partners during the mission.
She reaffirmed the Commission’s commitment to independence, neutrality and professionalism, stating that every administrative decision would be guided by the law and that the outcome of the 2027 general election would reflect the sovereign will of Nigerian voters.
