The Digital Rights Lawyers Initiative (DRLI) has called for independent audits of Nigeria’s electoral technologies and stronger safeguards for voters’ personal and biometric data ahead of the 2027 General Elections.

The organisation warned that while technology could improve the credibility and efficiency of elections, its deployment without adequate oversight, data protection and accountability mechanisms could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.

The call was made during a panel session, “The Ballot and the Byte: BVAS, Data Access, and the Unfinished Business of Electoral Accountability in Nigeria,” organised by DRLI with support from Luminate at the 4th Annual Privacy Conference (PrivCon 2026), held on September 1 at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The session, moderated by DRLI Co-Founder, Solomon Okedara, brought together experts in law, civil society, election observation and data protection to examine the growing intersection between electoral technology, voters’ privacy and electoral integrity.

The panel featured Godson Ogheneochuko of Udo Udoma & Belo-Osagie; Timi Olagunju of The Timeless Practice; Praise Adetula of the Center for Rural Advocacy and Inclusive Development; Lanre Komolafe of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice; and Safiya Bichi of Yiaga Africa.

Discussions centred on the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), access to voters’ personal and biometric information, cybersecurity, vote-buying, ballot secrecy and the need for independent scrutiny of the technologies underpinning the electoral process.

Ogheneochuko called for stronger data governance within the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), including comprehensive records of processing activities and effective audit trails showing how electoral data moves through its systems, who accesses it and how unauthorised disclosures could occur.

He also stressed the need for clear safeguards governing the transfer of voters’ information to political parties and other authorised recipients.

Komolafe argued that electoral transparency and privacy should not be viewed as conflicting objectives, particularly as modern electoral databases contain highly sensitive biometric information, including fingerprints and facial data.

She advocated secure technological mechanisms that would permit legitimate access to electoral information without unnecessarily exposing voters’ personal data.

Olagunju, speaking on the challenge of building public confidence in electoral technology, proposed a three-part assurance framework involving technical and technological audits, process and protocol audits, and public assurance mechanisms.

He said scrutiny should go beyond BVAS to cover the wider technological ecosystem supporting voter registration, accreditation, transmission of results and storage of electoral data.

The panel also highlighted the challenges confronting rural and underserved communities, where the effectiveness of electoral technology could be affected by infrastructure deficits.

Adetula identified poor network connectivity, unreliable electricity, inadequate technical support and limited voter understanding as potential obstacles to the effective deployment of BVAS.

She urged INEC to test electoral technologies under the conditions in which they would actually be deployed, rather than relying primarily on controlled or favourable environments that might not reflect the realities of underserved communities.

Bichi, drawing from election-observation experience, raised concerns over threats to ballot secrecy, including poorly positioned voting cubicles, surveillance by political-party agents and attempts by voters to photograph their marked ballots.

She called for stronger voter education and enforcement against practices aimed at obtaining proof of how individuals voted, warning that such practices could facilitate coercion and vote-buying.

The panel recommended independent assessment of electoral technologies ahead of the 2027 elections, with appropriate audit findings made available to the public.

It also called for stronger electoral data governance, safeguards for third-party access to voters’ information, closer collaboration between INEC and the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC), realistic testing of electoral technologies in underserved communities, improved training for election officials and stronger protection of ballot secrecy.

The experts maintained that privacy protection should be treated as an integral component of electoral integrity rather than an impediment to transparency.

With Nigeria preparing for the 2027 polls, the panel stressed that rebuilding public confidence would require more than assurances that electoral technology was functional.

According to the experts, confidence would depend on demonstrable safeguards showing that the technology, institutions operating it and personal information entrusted to them are subject to effective scrutiny, independent verification and accountability.