INEC Begins Election Project Plan For 2027 Polls

As part of its preparations for the 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced the formulation of its Election Project Plan (EPP), incorporating lessons learned from the 2023 general elections to enhance efficiency and credibility.

A senior official at the commission, who spoke to Saturday PUNCH, revealed that the new election framework aims to address logistical shortcomings and improve technical processes to ensure seamless electoral operations in 2027.

According to the INEC source, the 2027-2031 Strategic Plan is also in development to replace the current 2022-2026 framework, which is set to expire in December 2026.

“An important aspect of the current effort is the preparation of another critical document that will act as a bridge between 2026 and 2027—the general election year—which the current 2022-2026 plan does not cover.

“This document will provide the foundation for the 2027 EPP, ensuring continuity and seamless transition into the next election cycle,” the official said

While the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan focused on institutionalizing INEC’s processes, improving capacity building, professionalism, synergy among departments, and resource management, the EPP will be a more comprehensive election-specific plan designed to tackle specific challenges observed in previous elections.

Investigations by Saturday PUNCH revealed that the Election Project Plan (EPP) was first introduced for the 2015 general election and has since been utilized for the 2019 and 2023 elections.

However, following challenges encountered during the 2023 polls, INEC is fine-tuning its operations to ensure a more seamless voting process in 2027.

“We are updating our election templates to improve efficiency and reliability. The lessons from 2023 are shaping our approach to 2027,” the source added.

The 2023 general elections, which had 93,469,008 registered voters across 176,846 polling units, required an extensive logistical operation involving over 1.5 million electoral personnel, including polling staff, supervisors, and security officials and 182,491 vehicles deployed across Nigeria’s diverse terrains.

Despite these preparations, INEC encountered logistical and technical issues, particularly with the upload of presidential election results to the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal.

While the National Assembly election results were successfully uploaded, the presidential election results faced delays due to technical glitches.

A post-election review traced the problem to a configuration error, which prevented the system from properly mapping the presidential results, which are national, as opposed to state-specific elections.

Naija News understands that INEC later resolved the issue with software updates, successfully uploading the first presidential election result sheet later on election day.