Nigeria's INEC to implement AI checks for 2027 election results

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria has announced plans to implement technical safeguards to prevent the upload of inconsistent election results. Dr. Lawrence Bayode, INEC's Director of ICT, stated that the commission will block any results from being uploaded to the Result Viewing Portal (IReV) if they show discrepancies with data captured by the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

This proposed system, discussed during the AI4Election Hackathon in Abuja, aims to use artificial intelligence to compare electronically submitted tallies with the figures visible on scanned digital copies of polling-unit forms. If a mismatch is detected, the upload will be paused until the discrepancy is resolved.

The measure is intended to address historical issues regarding the integrity of electronic transmission and to reduce human error or manual interference. In previous election cycles, discrepancies between physical results and digital data on the IReV portal have been a significant source of public distrust and litigation.