The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has received a delegation from the African Union (AU) as part of efforts to assess Nigeria’s preparations for the 2027 general elections.
The delegation, led by Demeke Mekonnen, former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia, is in Nigeria for the AU’s Pre-Election and Needs Assessment Mission scheduled for September 13 to 19, 2026.
Mekonnen said the mission was aimed at assessing Nigeria’s electoral preparations, identifying potential gaps and recommending measures to support the conduct of credible and successful elections.
He said the AU would focus on key areas including voter registration, electoral technology, logistics, funding, inclusion, transparency, electoral disputes, security and result management.
Receiving the delegation, INEC’s Acting Chairman, Professor Rhoda Gumus, who represented the Commission’s Chairman, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, SAN, described the visit as timely and important to Nigeria’s democratic development.
Gumus said INEC was preparing for the 2027 elections on an unprecedented scale, with the voter population approaching 100 million, 176,846 polling units and more than 1.4 million personnel.
She noted that recent off-cycle elections had enabled the Commission to test electoral reforms introduced under the new legal framework.
The Acting Chairman also highlighted the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the IReV results-viewing portal and inter-agency security coordination as measures aimed at strengthening electoral administration.
She disclosed that INEC was working with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) through the Continuous Voter Registration Portal to audit, verify and clean the voter register.
However, Gumus acknowledged that Nigeria’s vast geographical size and complex electoral environment continued to pose technological, logistical and political challenges.
She stressed that electoral integrity required collaboration among multiple stakeholders, adding that international technical support remained important in addressing operational gaps ahead of the 2027 elections.
