By Abubakar Yunusa
The Executive Director of Kimpact Development Initiative (KDI ),Bukola Idowu, on Wednesday urged the Independent National Electoral Commission to strengthen regulation, election results management and collaboration with security agencies ahead of the 2027 general election.
Idowu spoke with journalists on the sidelines of the Election Integrity Summit in Abuja.
He said as the country prepares for governorship polls in Osun and Ekiti, and ultimately the 2027 elections, the electoral body must improve in three critical areas.
“Political parties appear to be doing whatever they like. Nobody is properly checking their spending or ensuring they meet stipulated deadlines,” he said.
On results management, Idowu noted that inconsistencies in Form EC8A uploaded on the INEC Result Viewing portal had raised public concern.
“When people download Form EC8A and see alterations and arithmetic errors, it casts doubt on the credibility of the process. INEC needs to address this decisively,” he added.
He also stressed the need for stronger synergy between INEC and security agencies to guarantee peaceful polls.
“If people do not feel safe or trust the process, they won’t come out to vote,” he said.
Idowu explained that the summit report focused on three pillars — election security, campaign finance and ballot security.
According to him, ballot security deals with the accuracy of declared results, including what is reflected on the IREV portal.
He disclosed that one of the key findings of the report was that most leading political parties exceeded the legal spending limits during the last election cycle.
“They overshot the benchmark set by law. Regulators mandated to track and punish offenders must act and release their reports,” he said.
He further pointed out inconsistencies in the number of registered voters, discrepancies between declared results and figures uploaded on IREV, cases of over-voting and missing ballots.
“With legislative backing now in place for IREV, these issues should be corrected going forward,” he stated.
In his keynote address, the Chairperson of the African Electoral Justice Network, Judge Boissie Henry Mbha, said INEC was on the right path despite existing challenges.
He said the commission’s difficulties were not unusual by global standards.
“INEC is doing a good job. There is room for improvement, but Nigeria has developed strong systems and processes,” Mbha said.
He added that strengthening institutions, ensuring independence and building public trust remained crucial.
According to him, the three pillars of credible elections — security during voting, campaign finance regulation and results management — must work together.
“If one fails, the others suffer,” he said.
