The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has established a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Division within its Information and Communication Technology (ICT) department to strengthen election result verification, combat misinformation and deepfakes, and upgrade the software powering the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, announced the development on Tuesday at a World Press Conference and National Stakeholders’ Forum on election preparations in Abuja.
The initiative marks a major step in the commission’s adoption of advanced data science and artificial intelligence to strengthen public confidence in the electoral process, address technological vulnerabilities and protect Nigeria’s elections from digital manipulation.
AI tools to strengthen result verification
Speaking to civil society leaders, political party representatives and international observers, Amupitan disclosed that automated AI auditing tools had already been integrated into INEC’s results verification process.
The technology is designed to identify potential anomalies as election results are electronically transmitted from polling units, allowing suspicious submissions to be flagged for further review.
“Artificial intelligence governance is no longer a luxury for electoral management bodies; it is a necessity,” Amupitan stated. “The commission has established a dedicated Artificial Intelligence Division within the ICT department. Automated AI auditing tools have been integrated into our results verification process to detect mathematical discrepancies, flag tampered tally sheets, and highlight statistical outliers as data arrives from the field”.
According to the chairman, the AI tools will operate under a strict “five-pillar AI governance framework” that includes mandatory human oversight.
The system will flag issues such as incorrectly calculated polling unit totals, visual inconsistencies in uploaded Form EC8A images and duplicate result transmissions for human assessment before official collation.
INEC is also collaborating with international technology partners and global cybersecurity firms as it develops and strengthens the AI-powered verification systems.
INEC moves against election deepfakes and misinformation
The creation of the AI Division also comes amid growing concerns over the use of generative AI, deepfake videos and synthetic audio to influence voters and manipulate public opinion during elections.
INEC officials expressed concern over emerging trends involving cloned voices of election officials, fabricated press briefings and synthetic images depicting altered election result sheets.
“Election credibility today depends not only on ballot papers and BVAS machines, but equally on the information environment in which voters form their judgments,” noted senior commission representatives.
To tackle coordinated disinformation, the new AI Division will deploy automated media-monitoring models supported by a rapid-response team. The systems will monitor digital platforms and social media channels for viral synthetic content targeting electoral operations.
Once identified, the commission said it would issue real-time cryptographic disclaimers and digital verifications through its official channels.
INEC also confirmed that it has established direct escalation channels with major technology and social media platforms, including Meta, X, TikTok, Google and WhatsApp, to facilitate the removal of malicious election-related deepfakes.
Amupitan also warned political actors and media organisations against broadcasting unverified or privately collated election results.
“Resist the declaration of privately collated results, because under the Electoral Act, the authority to declare results rests exclusively with the Commission,” he asserted.
INEC plans BVAS software and security upgrades
Alongside the AI initiative, INEC outlined plans to upgrade its core hardware and software infrastructure, with a major firmware and software overhaul planned for the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System.
The upgrades are expected to improve biometric matching capabilities, enabling faster facial and fingerprint recognition under challenging conditions, including low-light environments.
The upgraded BVAS software will also introduce enhanced cryptographic signing for data packets transmitted to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) and local collation hubs, providing additional protection against interception and tampering during transmission.
To test the reliability and security of its systems, INEC announced a series of stress tests and nationwide technical audits.
These include comprehensive security and vulnerability assessments across its ICT assets, servers and cloud infrastructure, alongside end-to-end encryption upgrades for active BVAS devices.
The commission also plans to conduct a nationwide mock accreditation exercise in November to test BVAS performance, network capacity and offline-to-online data synchronisation across different geopolitical zones.
INEC said it would additionally deploy an integrated digital situation room to monitor polling unit connectivity, device battery levels and accreditation speeds in real time on election day.
Stakeholders seek transparency in AI deployment
The announcement has received cautious optimism from electoral reform advocates, technical experts and civil society organisations, with stakeholders acknowledging the potential of AI to improve the speed and accuracy of election result verification.
However, observers have called on INEC to maintain transparency around the development and deployment of its AI systems.
Civil society representatives stressed that while artificial intelligence could significantly accelerate the detection of errors and anomalies, clear protocols would be necessary to determine how flagged results are reviewed without creating unnecessary delays during collation.
Concluding the press conference, Amupitan assured Nigerians that technology would support, rather than replace, accountability and transparency in the electoral process.
“Our goal is simple: to ensure that every valid vote cast by a citizen is accurately accredited, securely transmitted, and flawlessly verified,” he concluded.
INEC said training programmes for technical staff and ad-hoc election personnel would begin immediately as the commission expands its digital capabilities and prepares for emerging technology-driven threats to electoral integrity.
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