The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has identified artificial intelligence-generated disinformation as a major threat to the credibility of the 2027 general elections and warned that fabricated political content could spread faster than election authorities can verify it.
INEC Chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan (SAN), raised the alarm on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering a keynote address at the 13th Annual International Conference of the Association of Communication Scholars and Professionals of Nigeria.
The address, delivered on his behalf by an INEC National Commissioner, Sani Adam (SAN), focused on the growing intersection between technology, media and electoral communication.
Amupitan said the commission could no longer treat electoral technology and public communication as separate aspects of election management.
He explained that confidence in an election depends not only on the physical integrity of ballots, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and result sheets, but also on whether voters understand the processes and trust information coming from credible sources.
INEC introduced BVAS and the INEC Result Viewing Portal partly to strengthen transparency by enabling citizens to see polling-unit results before they are transferred to collation centres.
However, the 2023 election demonstrated that technology can also generate suspicion when systems fail or perform below public expectations, Amupitan said.
He noted that electoral legitimacy is strengthened when digital systems function reliably, voters understand how they work and authorities provide clear explanations when problems occur.
The commission is now auditing its electoral technology ahead of the 2027 polls. According to the chairman, the exercise will examine system redundancy, penetration testing, and disaster recovery arrangements.
INEC is also considering a mock presidential election to test voter accreditation, result transmission, and result viewing under conditions resembling an actual election day.
Amupitan’s strongest concern, however, centred on generative artificial intelligence.
He said AI tools had made it cheaper and increasingly difficult to detect fabricated audio, videos, and images capable of presenting false political claims as genuine material.
The danger, he noted, goes beyond fabricated speeches or doctored photographs. Algorithmic microtargeting could enable political actors to send different, and even contradictory, messages to narrowly defined groups of voters.
“The danger lies not only in outright fabrication but also in algorithmic microtargeting, which allows conflicting messages to reach narrow segments of the electorate without a shared factual foundation,” he said.
Such material could reach millions of social media users before journalists, fact-checkers, or election officials have established whether it is genuine.
To confront the problem, Amupitan outlined a five-point approach. It includes combining technology and communication planning, creating a rapid-response system for false information, disclosing known vulnerabilities and safeguards, strengthening collaboration with media scholars, fact-checkers, and technology platforms, and investing continually in media literacy.
The chairman also disclosed that INEC had proposed substantial funding for election technology and operations, including new accreditation devices to replace equipment lost or damaged during the previous electoral cycle.
He said the commission was awaiting full release of the funds, while its information and communications technology team had begun discussions with manufacturers.
Amupitan said the technology audit and proposed mock poll were progressing alongside the budget process.
The INEC chairman called for closer cooperation among the commission, media practitioners, technology specialists and academics to prepare voters for a complex information environment before the 2027 elections.
The emerging challenge, he suggested, is no longer simply whether election technology can record and transmit votes accurately. It is whether Nigerians can distinguish authentic electoral information from convincing digital fabrications before falsehood shapes public perception.
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