Former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to fully adopt electronic voting and real-time transmission of results for the 2027 general elections.
Speaking in Owerri on September 5, 2025, at an interactive session themed “Moving forward together,” El-Rufai said there was no compelling reason why Nigeria should continue with a system prone to human manipulation.
He noted that the experience from Kaduna State’s local government elections in 2018 and 2021 proved that electronic voting was feasible, stressing that INEC has sufficient time to deploy the necessary infrastructure nationwide before 2027.
“Can we not agree to say farewell to electoral malfeasance and any appearance of it by adopting electronic voting and real-time transmission of results to collation points without interference? I do not see any compelling argument or unbridgeable barrier to adopting electronic voting and transmission of results for the 2027 elections,” El-Rufai said.
According to him, electronic voting machines could be configured to identify and verify voters, provide a paper trail, shut down automatically at the close of voting, print results for stakeholders at polling units, and transmit results seamlessly to collation centers.
El-Rufai maintained that adopting the system would strengthen democratic stability and eliminate electoral malpractices.
He recalled that during his tenure, the ruling party lost some councils under electronic voting but accepted the outcome, insisting that political will was the only barrier to national implementation.
