2027: Forum Urges INEC To Publish AI Election Results Protocol

By Gabi Hibbatullah, Abuja

The Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to publish a comprehensive protocol for managing election results ahead of the 2027 general elections, including the use of AI in processing and verifying results.

The forum said the guidelines should cover the capture of physical Form EC8A, AI-assisted extraction of results into electronic formats, transmission, verification, collation, resolution of discrepancies and audit trails.

The forum was jointly convened by Yiaga Africa, INEC, the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development and Dataphyte Foundation.

The recommendations were contained in the outcome document of the AI and Democracy Forum held in Abuja last week, with the theme, “Will Algorithms Determine the 2027 Vote? Safeguarding Nigeria’s 2027 General Election in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.”

The document was released by Yiaga Africa and obtained by LEADERSHIP yesterday.

The forum also called on INEC to publish an election-specific AI governance framework detailing its proposed applications, data sources, risk classifications, human decision-makers, vendors’ responsibilities and safeguards before deployment.

It stressed the need for transparent procurement and independent verification of technology vendors’ claims, insisting that human accountability must be maintained at every stage of election management.

The forum further urged the commission to strengthen the capacity of its leadership and staff in cybersecurity and AI governance, building on existing training initiatives.

It warned against relying solely on automated systems to determine the validity of voter registrations or election results.

“Treat AI-flagged duplicate registrations or anomalous results as leads for documented human review, not automatic grounds for deletion, rejection, suspension or declaration,” the document stated.

It also called for corrective and appeal mechanisms to ensure that people affected by AI-assisted decisions could challenge those decisions.

On political campaigns, the forum urged political parties and candidates to sign and comply with an ethical AI code of conduct.

The code, it said, should require disclosure of materially synthetic campaign content and prohibit deceptive impersonation, covert manipulation and discriminatory targeting.

The recommendations also placed responsibilities on technology companies and digital platforms to curb the misuse of AI during the electoral process.

They urged the platforms to implement their technology accord commitments, restrict and label AI-generated likenesses of candidates, and ensure the swift removal of synthetic impersonation.

The forum called for greater transparency in political advertising and stronger content moderation in Nigerian languages, alongside accessible channels through which INEC, civil society organisations and fact-checkers could report violations.

It also stressed the need to ensure that AI-powered result-aggregation platforms were accurate, transparent and auditable.

However, it emphasised that only INEC has the legal authority to declare final election results.

For the media and civil society, the forum recommended establishing digital forensic desks in newsrooms, expanding grassroots AI media-literacy campaigns, and strengthening monitoring of algorithmic transparency and campaign spending.

It also urged independent result aggregators and civil society organisations to disclose their methodologies, sources, verification standards, error-handling procedures and limitations.

On election security, the forum called on security agencies to strengthen their capacity to respond to cyber incidents and conduct digital forensics, subject to clear legal authority, privacy protections and proportionality safeguards.

It further urged the judiciary to prepare for disputes involving AI-generated evidence and synthetic media.

The forum called on development partners to sustain support for digital literacy, infrastructure security and independent audits without stifling local innovation.

It also advocated unified West African guidelines through the ECONEC network and the development of a stronger continental evidence base on AI in elections.