2027 Elections: Atiku Demands Access to Nigeria’s 103m Voters

African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to make Nigeria’s preliminary voters’ register available online, arguing that citizens must be able to verify their details and challenge questionable entries ahead of the 2027 general election.

Atiku’s demand, issued in a statement on Thursday, October 22, followed reports that the commission’s online portal did not display the preliminary register during the seven-day public scrutiny period it had announced for October 9 to 15. He said the absence of an accessible online list prevented voters from checking whether their names had been omitted or whether the register contained entries that required correction.

The former vice-president was responding to INEC’s announcement that Nigeria’s national register had grown to more than 103 million voters after the completion of its three-phase Continuous Voter Registration exercise and biometric checks. The commission’s chairman, Joash Amupitan, disclosed the figure in early October, saying the registration exercise had recorded 10,772,421 new applicants before the final verification process.

Atiku, through Phrank Shaibu, director of strategic communication for the African Democratic Congress Presidential Campaign Council, asked INEC to publish the register by local government area, area council and ward, and to explain the conflicting accounts surrounding its display. He also called for details of the dates and online links through which the public could access the register.

The issue has drawn attention because Section 19(1) of the Electoral Act 2026 requires the voters’ register for each local government, area council or ward to be displayed for public scrutiny at registration areas and on the commission’s official website or another website established for that purpose. The law also provides for claims and objections concerning omitted names, questionable entries and necessary corrections.

INEC has disputed suggestions that it failed to comply with the law. A commission official told Leadership that the register had been displayed across wards and local government areas nationwide. INEC spokesperson Mohammed Haruna separately told Premium Times that the register was available for claims and objections at registration areas between October 9 and 15, and that the commission was compiling submissions before publishing a clean version by December 15.

However, reports by the Foundation for Investigative Journalism and Premium Times said the online portal still showed no preliminary register when they checked it after the announced scrutiny period. Those later checks establish that the register was not visible online at the times they visited, but do not on their own prove what was available throughout the entire October 9–15 period.

Atiku also questioned provisions in the new electoral law concerning ballot papers without INEC’s official mark, urging the commission to clarify how such ballots would be authenticated and how political parties could challenge disputed papers. His statement linked those concerns to the broader question of transparency in the electoral process, although the immediate dispute centres on public access to the voters’ register.

The dispute comes as Nigeria prepares for the presidential and National Assembly elections scheduled for January 16, 2027, followed by governorship and state assembly elections on February 6. With more than 103 million names on the register, public access matters not only for confirming individual voter details but also for identifying errors before election day. The legal requirement for publication online is particularly significant for voters who may find it difficult to travel to a registration area to inspect the list in person.