The Independent National Electoral Commission has established an artificial intelligence unit to detect deepfakes, monitor digital threats and counter misinformation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, who disclosed this on Wednesday in Abuja at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026, warned that the manipulation of voters’ minds poses a greater danger to electoral integrity than the hacking of ballot boxes.
Amupitan used the Forum, organised in collaboration with Yiaga Africa, to assure Nigerians that the commission would not allow algorithms to determine the outcome of the elections.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” Amupitan declared, stressing that the power to choose Nigeria’s leaders rests exclusively with the electorate.
He warned that advances in generative AI had made it possible for malicious actors to produce convincing videos and audio recordings of candidates, electoral officials and security personnel making statements they never made, potentially misleading voters and undermining confidence in the electoral process.
“The greatest threat we face is not the hacking of a ballot box, but the hacking of the voter’s mind,” he said.
Amupitan cautioned that fabricated announcements about candidate withdrawals, election postponements and inflammatory ethnoreligious statements could spread rapidly online, while criminals could impersonate INEC officials to issue fake electoral guidelines, announce unauthorised results or discourage citizens from voting.
He said the commission’s newly established AI unit within its Information and Communication Technology Directorate would deploy real-time digital monitoring tools, deepfake detection software and data analytics to identify threats and information manipulation targeting the elections.
The INEC chairman also declared that critical electoral decisions, including voter accreditation, result collation and candidate qualification, would not be fully automated or delegated to autonomous systems.
“Human accountability, statutory oversight and judicial review will remain paramount at every stage of the electoral chain,” he said.
According to him, all AI tools deployed by the commission for logistics, database management and operational support would undergo rigorous audits to ensure transparency, fairness and security before implementation.
He added that INEC was developing a digital strategy to monitor the electoral information environment and working with technology platforms to facilitate the rapid identification, labelling and debunking of AI-generated content relating to elections.
Beyond the risks, Amupitan said AI could strengthen election administration through improved logistics, statistical audits and voter education.
He explained that AI-powered geospatial analytics could help the commission deploy personnel, vehicles, boats and sensitive election materials to 176,846 polling units before 7:30 a.m. on election day by analysing traffic, weather conditions, road networks and security incidents.
The technology could also support parallel statistical audits of polling unit result sheets uploaded through the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System’s results framework, helping to identify mathematical inconsistencies, unusual entry patterns and poor-quality images for administrative review.
However, he maintained that human collation would remain the statutory basis for declaring election results.
The commission is also using AI-enhanced biometric identification systems to detect duplicate facial and fingerprint records in the National Register of Voters, which contains more than 103 million records.
Amupitan said natural language processing could improve voter education by translating election guidelines, polling unit information and Permanent Voter Card collection instructions into indigenous languages, including audio formats for visually impaired and low-literacy citizens.
He added that AI-powered security tools could help protect INEC’s digital platforms, including the INEC Result Viewing Portal and Candidates Nomination Portal, against cyberattacks.
The chairman disclosed that the commission had processed more than 15,000 candidate nominations across 22 political parties, introduced online voter registration and procured additional BVAS units, with consignments already being received.
He said ten of the 14 major operational milestones for the 2027 general elections had been completed, describing the exercise as the largest democratic undertaking on the African continent.
Amupitan, however, stressed that protecting the elections required collective action beyond INEC.
He called on Meta, X, Google, TikTok and Telegram to swiftly restrict unlabelled synthetic media impersonating candidates, electoral officials and security personnel, enforce disclaimers on political advertisements and curb micro-targeting based on ethnicity, religion and local origin.
He also proposed expanding an Electoral Information Integrity Coalition involving INEC, civil society organisations, the Nigerian Guild of Editors, the Nigeria Fact-Checking Coalition, media organisations and telecommunications operators to provide early warnings against viral misinformation.
He urged political parties and candidates to sign an Ethical AI Code of Conduct committing them to avoid deepfakes, synthetic impersonation, deceptive political advertisements and automated bot networks.
He said the commission would work with the National Orientation Agency, civil society groups and the media to incorporate AI literacy into voter education, encouraging citizens to verify sensational information before sharing it.
“On election day in 2027, it will be the thumbprint of the Nigerian citizen, guided by their own will and their own hopes, that decides our future,” Amupitan said.
“INEC’s job is to ensure that the voice of the people is heard clearly, above the noise of the machines,” he added.
The two-day forum attracted election management officials from across Africa, political party representatives, civil society organisations, security agencies, technology companies and media practitioners.
