The Independent National Electoral Commission has scheduled a nationwide mock accreditation and voting exercise for 28 November 2026. The exercise will test preparations for the 2027 general elections. INEC Chairman Joash Amupitan announced it on 12 November during a dialogue at Chatham House in London. He said the simulation would assess upgrades to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and electronic results transmission ahead of the presidential election.
The commission has also begun distributing non-sensitive election materials to some states. Amupitan disclosed that additional technical safeguards had been introduced. These are meant to prevent inaccurate polling unit results and figures indicating over-voting from being uploaded to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal. The safeguards matter. In 2023, over-voting disputes and portal delays fuelled public distrust. A mock exercise is the right way to test fixes before a real election.
The historical echo is the 2019 election postponement. INEC delayed the polls by a week, citing logistics. The delay damaged public confidence. The 2023 election tested BVAS for the first time. It worked in many places and failed in others. The mock exercise is designed to catch failures before they become national embarrassments.
The mechanics matter. A mock exercise tests technology. It also tests officials. If presiding officers cannot operate the upgraded system under controlled conditions, they will not manage it on election day. The winners are INEC, which gains a testing window; political parties, which can observe the process; and voters, who benefit if the technology works. The losers are INEC, if the mock exercise exposes failures it cannot fix before January; and any party that plans to exploit technical gaps.
Winners: INEC, which gains a testing window; political parties observing the process; voters, if the technology works.
Losers: INEC, if failures emerge; parties planning to exploit technical gaps.
Bottom Line: A mock exercise is only useful if INEC publishes the results and fixes what fails. Otherwise, it is a rehearsal for the same problems.