INEC schedules a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise for November 28 as it upgrades BVAS ahead of the 2027 general elections
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed November 28, 2026, for a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise to test its electoral technology ahead of the 2027 general elections.
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INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan, announced the date on Thursday during a dialogue at Chatham House in London, organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative.
He said the exercise would simulate the presidential election and allow the commission to assess its voter accreditation system and electronic transmission of results before the actual polls.
“On the 28th of this month, we will conduct a mock accreditation and voting exercise across all states of the Federation to simulate the presidential election and verify that we have gotten both accreditation and electronic result transmission right,” Amupitan said.
The chairman also disclosed that INEC had procured additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices and reduced the maximum number of registered voters assigned to each machine from 1,250 to 850.
Under the revised arrangement, polling units with more than 850 registered voters will receive multiple BVAS machines to improve accreditation and reduce delays.
The commission is also introducing technical measures to address problems experienced during the 2023 general elections, particularly BVAS malfunctions linked to extreme temperatures and inadequate storage conditions.
Amupitan said INEC was constructing climate-controlled storage facilities across the states to protect the devices and improve their reliability.
He further disclosed that a post-election review identified collation centres, rather than polling units, as the main source of problems with election result management.
According to him, the commission has introduced safeguards to prevent inaccurate polling unit results and figures indicating over-voting from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
“We have now devised a technical safeguard: if a result is not accurate at the polling unit, it will not go to IReV at all,” he said.
Amupitan added that the measures were designed to eliminate discrepancies between polling unit results and figures presented during collation.
The INEC chairman acknowledged that controversies surrounding the 2023 presidential election had significantly damaged public confidence in the commission, saying it had yet to fully recover from the resulting trust deficit.
He cited recent off-cycle elections, including the governorship polls in Anambra and Osun, as opportunities for the commission to identify operational weaknesses and improve its procedures.
The November 28 exercise will therefore provide an opportunity to test the upgraded accreditation equipment and electronic results transmission arrangements before the 2027 elections.
Also read:INEC Vows to Obey Court Ruling on Atiku’s 2027 Bid
The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections are expected to hold on February 6, 2027.
