The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set November 28 for its nationwide mock accreditation exercise as part of preparations for the 2027 elections.

In a statement on Thursday, INEC chairman Joash Amupitan announced this during a high-level dialogue at Chatham House, London, organised in partnership with the Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI).

Speaking on the theme ‘Nigeria’s 2027 Elections: Democratic Trajectory and Regional Stability Beyond the Ballot’, Mr Amupitan urged Nigerians to trust the leadership promising to deliver fair and credible elections in 2027.

Mr Amupitan acknowledged that controversies surrounding the 2023 election had significantly damaged public confidence in INEC, admitting the organisation had yet to recover fully.

However, the INEC chief said he used off-cycle elections to identify operational weaknesses and improve the electoral body’s accreditation, voting and result management processes.

Responding to a question on why Nigerians should trust his leadership ahead of 2027, he cited the Anambra, Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, the Federal Capital Territory area council elections, and 16 legislative by-elections as evidence of progress.

According to him, the elections in Anambra and Osun recorded improvements, with results declared the day after voting compared with previous experiences of prolonged and inconclusive contests.

Mr Amupitan identified insecurity, logistics and result management as the priorities for INEC ahead of the 2027 polls. He disclosed that the electoral body had introduced safeguards to prevent inaccurate results and over-voting from being uploaded to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV).

He said a post-2023 review identified collation centres as sources of result management failures, prompting the introduction of stricter validation measures.

On the malfunction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) linked to extreme heat and storage conditions in 2023, he said INEC was constructing climate-controlled storage facilities in all states.

According to the INEC chief, additional devices had been procured, while the maximum number of voters assigned to each BVAS machine had been reduced from 1,250 to 850.