INEC Admits 2023 Failures, Promises Better 2027 Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has admitted that its handling of the 2023 presidential election eroded public trust but says it has addressed the challenges prior to the 2027 general elections.

Speaking at a stakeholders’ roundtable on voter education and youth participation in Abuja on Thursday, INEC’s Deputy Director of Voter Education, Paula Iwenjiora, admitted that the commission’s website experienced heavy traffic during the 2023 presidential election, which affected the process.

“I don’t blame people because we have deficit trust because of what happened the last time. I know everybody blames INEC. It’s okay to blame us, as it were, because we promised; it looks as if we failed in our promise,” Iwenjiora said.

“But you know that in that first election, in 2023, the presidential election, there was so much load on the website.”

She said improvements were subsequently made during the governorship elections.

“If we didn’t get it right in that presidential election, I think we worked on it to get it right in the second, the gubernatorial election,” she added, noting that the current leadership under Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan is working hard to ensure things are done properly.

“If you have followed this new chairman, who is one year and about 12 days in office now, you can see that he is working very hard with his directors, the national commissioners; you can see them going on tours, you know, he’s talking to us, the staff, every other time, that ‘listen, this thing has to work’,” she said.

Iwenjiora urged young Nigerians to actively participate in the electoral process, warning that failure to vote would leave decisions about their future to others.

“Votes cannot be counted on social media. Your PVCs cannot be counted on social media. If you don’t come out as a youth, if you’re not interested, that’s your future you’re giving over to somebody else,” she said.

“If you don’t join, if you don’t speak your mind, nobody will know what is and how to represent you. So if you leave the older generation to keep going, they will keep going. But if you don’t come out to challenge it, you will not be represented.”

She also disclosed that technology, including drones, would be deployed to capture electoral offences such as vote-buying.

“As our chairman said, there will be technology involved to capture people with the drones, people who are doing vote-buying, so that if you’re captured, you cannot deny it, as your picture will show,” she stated.

On security, she said INEC was working with the police, military, and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps through an inter-agency arrangement.