Nigeria’s voter register has risen above 103 million ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said on Monday.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan announced the figure in Abuja at a strategic workshop for media executives organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors in partnership with the commission. He said 10,772,421 new registrants were captured during the three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise, though the figure remains subject to final verification.
Mr Amupitan said INEC had completed its Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) cleanup and would display the preliminary register from October 9 to 15 so voters can raise claims and objections. Collection of newly produced Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) will also begin nationwide on October 9, with the cards distributed to local government collection centres.
According to him, the commission has acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for the elections, he said. He added that upgraded BVAS machines, an enhanced electronic results management system and an improved eEC8A form would be deployed to strengthen the authentication and uploading of results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.
Mr Amupitan also warned that deepfakes, manipulated video and audio, coordinated disinformation and premature declarations of results could undermine the elections. He urged journalists to verify information before publication.
He said INEC was working with security and financial agencies to monitor political violence and campaign spending, insisting that the 2027 election must be decided by voters rather than the size of candidates’ campaign war chests.
