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Nigeria‘s electoral commission chairman Joash Amupitan has said artificial intelligence will not determine the outcome of the country’s 2027 general elections, insisting that voting decisions must remain in the hands of citizens.
“Algorithms will not, and must never, decide the 2027 vote,” Amupitan said at the Artificial Intelligence and Democracy Forum 2026 in Abuja, organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and civic group Yiaga Africa.
“The choice of who leads Nigeria belongs exclusively to the Nigerian people,” he said, warning that while algorithms could predict patterns and suggest preferences, they lacked a conscience or a vote.
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“Algorithms may predict patterns; they may optimise routes, and they may even suggest preferences. But they do not have a conscience, they do not have a country, and they do not have a vote.”
Amupitan said AI would nevertheless influence the electoral process, from the information voters encounter to the management of election logistics and the tactics used by both democratic and anti-democratic actors.
“While algorithms will not decide the vote, AI will undeniably shape the information environment in which citizens form their choices, influence the speed and security of electoral logistics, and alter the tactics of both democratic actors and anti-democratic disruptors,” he said.
He described the 2027 election as one of Africa’s largest democratic exercises, with more than 103 million registered voters and 176,846 polling units across the country’s 774 local government areas.
The commission, he said, had completed 10 of 14 major operational milestones under the Electoral Act 2026.
It had also acquired additional Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices, digitised candidate nominations and introduced online voter registration.
Amupitan said AI could help improve election administration through route planning, result audits, biometric database management, multilingual voter information and cybersecurity.
But he cautioned that the technology would not replace human judgement in key electoral decisions, including result collation, voter accreditation and candidate qualification.
“Human accountability, statutory oversight, and judicial review will remain paramount at every stage of the electoral chain,” he said.
