The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Joash Amupitan, has declared that the commission will not favour any political party or candidate in the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan made the declaration on Friday, October 30, when he received a pre-election fact-finding mission from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja.
The delegation was led by Victor Bockarie Foh, a former Vice-President of Sierra Leone.
The INEC chairman said the commission was assessing its preparedness across the country’s geopolitical zones ahead of the elections.
“INEC under my watch has no candidate and no political party,” Amupitan said.
“Our sole allegiance is to the rule of law, the sovereign will of the Nigerian electorate, and the democratic progress of our nation.”
READ ALSO: Alleged Partisan Tweets: Amupitan’s Past Under Scrutiny As INEC Refutes Allegations
He said the elections would cover 8,809 registration areas across the country’s 774 local government areas.
Amupitan also disclosed that Nigeria’s voter register had exceeded 103 million, while INEC had completed nine of the 14 major statutory activities outlined in its revised election timetable.
According to him, the commission had concluded three phases of the Continuous Voter Registration exercise and completed the nationwide physical display of the preliminary register of voters.
On election technology, he said INEC would deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) to verify voters through fingerprint and facial recognition, alongside electronic systems for managing election results.
He added that the commission had introduced the eEC8A electronic verification platform to strengthen result verification and complement the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Amupitan further said INEC was collaborating with security agencies through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES) to ensure adequate protection during the electoral process.
Speaking on behalf of the ECOWAS delegation, Foh said the visit was part of the regional organisation’s efforts to evaluate election preparations in member countries approaching general elections.
He explained that the mission, which included Serigne Mamadou Ka, Head of the ECOWAS Electoral Assistance Division, would examine the readiness of electoral stakeholders and identify areas where the regional body could offer assistance.
Foh said the exercise was being conducted in accordance with Article 31 of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance and Article 53 of the ECOWAS Conflict Prevention Framework.