Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is testing election preparations across the six North-East states, home to 13,965,475 registered voters, BusinessDay reported Oct. 27.
INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan led the Gombe meeting on Oct. 26, with national commissioners, resident electoral commissioners from the North-East’s six states and other senior officials in attendance, the newspaper reported. He urged officials to work impartially and give security planning priority. Amupitan said the nationwide visits were intended to expose weaknesses in election operations while there was time to address them before the 2027 general election. He also emphasized the people and conditions behind election-day delivery, including staff conduct, team coordination and usable facilities.
The North-East stop followed visits to Lagos on Sept. 7, Kaduna on Sept. 28 and Enugu on Oct. 20, BusinessDay reported. Gombe was the fourth stop in the nationwide review.
The region’s 13,965,475 registered voters account for 13.51% of Nigeria’s electorate, which exceeds 103 million, according to the report. INEC is cleaning voter data after its Continuous Voter Registration exercise ended as it prepares an updated register for the 2027 election. Earlier questions about online access, detailed in a report on the missing preliminary voter register, concerned whether the roll was available during its public review.
The size of the electorate puts pressure on voter-data management and the movement of personnel and election materials across the six states, BusinessDay reported. The outlet warned that poor coordination or lapses in staff conduct could weaken public confidence. INEC’s task includes managing the voter file and ensuring staff and materials are ready for operations across the region.
BusinessDay said the next measure will be whether INEC turns issues raised at the meetings into changes in field-team preparation and security planning.
