2027 Election: INEC set to release new timetable

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash O. Amupitan (SAN), has said the commission will release a new timetable for the 2027 general elections.

This follows the signing of the new Electoral Act 2026 into law.

He made this known on Wednesday during a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) and at the swearing-in of Dr. Chukwu Chukwu-Emeka Joseph as the REC for Abia State.

Recently, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026 into law shortly after it was passed by the National Assembly.

Before the new law was signed, INEC had announced that the presidential and National Assembly elections would hold on February 20, 2027, while governorship and State House of Assembly elections were fixed for March 6, 2027.

However, some groups, especially Muslim organisations, criticised the dates because they would fall during the holy month of Ramadan.

Amupitan explained that INEC had earlier issued a Notice of Election on February 13, 2026, based on the old Electoral Act, since the new law had not yet been signed at that time.

He said that with the new Electoral Act 2026 now in place, the commission must adjust its plans and publish a revised timetable in line with the new legal requirements.

According to the amended law, INEC must publish a notice of election at least 300 days before the date fixed for any election in each state and the Federal Capital Territory.

The INEC chairman also announced that the commission will soon begin a nationwide Voters Revalidation Exercise.

This exercise is meant to clean up and update the national voter register ahead of the 2027 elections. He said the decision was discussed during the commission’s retreat held in Lagos in January.

He reminded the RECs that the second phase of the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR), which started on January 5, 2026, is still ongoing and will end on April 17, 2026. The entire CVR process is expected to finish by August 30, 2026.

The meeting took place shortly after the Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory and bye-elections in parts of Kano and Rivers states. Amupitan described the elections as mostly peaceful and successful.

However, he admitted that there were delays in the opening of some polling units, which he said is unacceptable and affects public trust.

He assured that any staff or logistics failures would be investigated and those responsible could face sanctions.

He also mentioned that although the elections were largely peaceful, there were some problems at certain collation centres.

He called for better cooperation with security agencies to prevent such issues in future elections.
Amupitan explained that INEC has improved its result management system. He said that the most sensitive stage of elections is not the voting at polling units, but the collation of results.

To improve transparency, new safeguards have been added to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS). Now, the Presiding Officer must take a picture of the completed Form EC8A and upload it to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

At the same time, the officer must enter the scores of each political party directly into the BVAS device.

The BVAS system now checks automatically to ensure that the total votes entered do not exceed the number of accredited voters and that the figures are correct.

If there is any over-voting or error, the system will flag it and prevent the result from being finalised.

He said the improved system was tested during the FCT Area Council elections and the bye-elections in Kano and Rivers.

According to him, about 97 per cent of the FCT results have already been uploaded and are available on IReV, with no discrepancies reported.