The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is considering a comprehensive audit of its electoral technology infrastructure and a mock presidential election ahead of the 2027 general election.

The commission said the move is aimed at preventing a recurrence of the technical glitches that affected the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) during the 2023 presidential poll.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, disclosed this on Thursday while receiving the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Dr. Richard Montgomery, during a courtesy visit to the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja.

Amupitan said the Commission was exploring the possibility of independently auditing all its technological systems and conducting a simulated presidential election to test the robustness and readiness of its electoral infrastructure before the 2027 polls.

“We are looking at the possibility of having an audit of all our systems ahead of the election and also conducting a mock presidential election. We are trying to see how that can be done,” he said.

The proposed measures come against the backdrop of the controversy that followed the 2023 presidential election, when the IReV portal failed to upload polling unit presidential election results in real time as promised by the electoral commission.

The failure sparked widespread criticism from political parties, election observers and voters, many of whom questioned the transparency of the collation process and the reliability of INEC’s election technology.

In its post-election review released in 2024, INEC attributed the glitch to a configuration problem within the result management system that affected only the upload of presidential election results.

According to the commission, while Senate and House of Representatives results were uploaded successfully, attempts to upload presidential results generated internal server errors due to a system-mapping failure.

INEC said the issue was eventually resolved through software updates, but delayed uploads continued because of a backlog of queued results and connectivity challenges in some locations.

INEC also acknowledged that the incident eroded public confidence in the electoral process and subsequently undertook improvements to strengthen the resilience and performance of the IReV portal.

The commission said additional quality assurance measures and system checks have since been introduced to improve reliability ahead of future elections.

Against that background, Amupitan said the Commission was determined to leave nothing to chance as preparations intensify for the 2027 general election.

He noted that although the proposed audit and mock presidential election were not captured in INEC’s original budget, the Commission would explore ways of implementing them because of their potential value in strengthening electoral credibility.

The INEC chairman explained that the initiative forms part of broader efforts to improve the Commission’s technological architecture and safeguard public trust in the electoral process.

According to him, INEC has continued to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), the IReV portal and other digital platforms while simultaneously reviewing its cybersecurity framework.

He disclosed that the Commission has undertaken extensive assessments of its cybersecurity architecture, including software resilience, system redundancy, penetration testing, disaster recovery mechanisms and communication protocols.

Amupitan stressed that public confidence in elections depends significantly on the reliability of electoral technology and the ability of the Commission to address lessons learned from previous elections.

He identified election technology and cybersecurity as critical areas of collaboration between INEC and its international partners, including the United Kingdom and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES).

The chairman reaffirmed INEC’s commitment to conducting elections that are credible, transparent and reflective of the will of Nigerians.

Earlier, Montgomery said the UK government was closely monitoring preparations for the 2027 general election and viewed its engagement with INEC as part of its broader support for Nigeria’s democratic development.

The envoy, who is expected to conclude his tenure in Nigeria in about six weeks, assured the Commission of continued British support and cooperation under his successor as preparations for the next general election gather pace.