Ekiti Governorship Election Litmus Test For 2027, Says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described the June 20 Ekiti State governorship election as a “critical diagnostic milestone” and a litmus test for the 2027 general elections.

The INEC national chairman, Prof Joash Amupitan, who stated this assured that no election results would be uploaded to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) without full verification during the Ekiti State governorship poll holding next week.

Amupitan spoke in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital during an interactive session with media executives in continuation of monitoring and assessment of level of preparedness towards the election.

The INEC chairman who confirmed that 14 political parties have been cleared to contest the poll said, “Due to time constraints and inconsistent judicial rulings, the ballot will remain unchanged for all registered candidates and INEC will only announce candidates who have been accepted, verified and cleared.”

Amupitan disclosed that INEC, through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, has mapped 469–500 polling units identified as vulnerable or located within 500 metres of flashpoints saying additional personnel would be deployed to those areas.

The electoral boss revealed that he, alongside some top management staff of the commission, had gone round to monitor mock accreditation exercises across selected polling units in the state which he said was successful.

The mock accreditation exercise, he said, was designed as a quality assurance mechanism to test the Commission’s technological infrastructure and operational capacity under real field conditions before the election day.

Amupitan disclosed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) performed efficiently during the exercise, with fingerprint and facial authentication taking an average of between five and seven seconds per voter.

He added that INEC had deployed additional backup BVAS devices and technical support personnel across all Registration Areas to ensure that equipment malfunctioning is promptly addressed.

“We have worked closely with the police, DSS, Civil Defence and other security agencies. Our priority is to ensure that voters, election officials, journalists and observers are safe throughout the electoral process.

“We did not want to speak from an air-conditioned boardroom in Abuja or rely solely on paperwork. We went to the theatre of operations to see for ourselves how our systems are performing.

“The mock accreditation is essentially to test our facilities, especially our technology, and ensure that everything required for the election is functioning optimally.

“What we observed today confirms that our technological defence against identity theft and result manipulation is robust and fully operational.

“We have provided upgraded backup BVAS devices and deployed technical engineers across the state. Any malfunctioning device can be replaced within minutes.

“Our goal remains the simultaneous opening of polls in all 2,445 polling units at exactly 8:30 a.m. on election day. We have directed electoral officers to ensure that polling units are activated on time and that logistics are fully in place before election day,” he said.

While urging the media to fact-check information before publication to protect the credibility of the electoral process, he said, “The greatest threat we face is not technical failure but misinformation and disinformation. Fake news, manufactured on election-day panic and unauthorised declaration of results are direct assaults on public peace and democratic stability.

“Your role as the frontline is critical, the election must be peaceful, credible, timely, and results management must be sound.”