INEC Reveals It Is Yet To Receive ₦873 Billion Budget For 2027 Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it is yet to receive budgetary allocations for the conduct of the 2027 general elections.

Naija News reports that the INEC National Commissioner in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, Malam Mohammed Haruna, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a cross-sectoral interactive session organised by the Peering Advocacy and Advancement Centre in Africa (PAACA) in partnership with Legis360.

He explained that, although the electoral commission was still awaiting the release of funds, preparations for the successful conduct of the 2027 elections were ongoing.

The national commissioner explained that the development was still within the time limit as per the Electoral Act, 2026, which provides that election funds due to the commission for any general election shall be released “not later than six months before the next general election”.

He, however, said that the commission was already making arrangements to procure new election materials, including the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and other machines that were damaged, lost, or unrecovered during previous elections.

“Our director of ICT just returned from China regarding procurement because not all the BVAS devices used during the last general elections were recovered. Orders need to be placed, and these things take time,” he said.

Haruna also disclosed that the commission was planning to conduct mock presidential election exercises to test-run its technology deployment.

This, according to him, is part of efforts to avoid a repeat of the technical glitches that affected the INEC Result Viewing (IReV) portal during the 2023 presidential election.

INEC had proposed a total budget of ₦873.78 billion for the 2027 general elections, with substantial allocations dedicated to election operations, technology and capital expenditure.