KIMPACT Hosts Election Integrity Summit In Abuja Ahead Of 2027 Polls

By Joseph Sunday

Civil society leaders, electoral officials, and security stakeholders gathered in Abuja on Wednesday as KIMPACT Development Initiative (KDI) hosted a high-level Election Integrity Summit aimed at addressing vote-buying, election violence, and declining public trust ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections.

The Summit held at the Abuja Continental Hotel convened representatives from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies, the judiciary, civil society organizations, media practitioners, development partners, and concerned citizens.

The gathering focused on rebuilding confidence in Nigeria’s democratic process under the theme “The Triad of Trust: Strengthening the Pillars of Election Security, Financial Accountability, and Result Integrity.”

Participants acknowledged measurable progress in electoral administration, particularly the growing use of technology in election management.

Insights presented during the summit showed that about 98 percent of election results were uploaded to INEC’s IReV portal by midnight in recent electoral cycles, a development observers say has improved transparency in several states.
Despite these gains, speakers warned that technology alone cannot restore public confidence in the electoral system.

Stakeholders pointed to persistent challenges including vote-buying, election-related violence, weak enforcement of campaign finance rules, disinformation, low voter turnout, and a continuing culture of impunity.

Discussions also revealed that election-day spending remains the dominant form of campaign expenditure, while compliance with financial disclosure requirements among political actors remains weak.

Delivering the keynote address, retired South African jurist Boissie Henry Mbha, former Chairperson of the Electoral Court of South Africa, stressed that credible elections depend on a coordinated institutional ecosystem rather than isolated reforms.

He noted that while courts can safeguard legality, they cannot substitute for sound electoral design, preventive safeguards, and institutional accountability.

The summit also featured goodwill messages from electoral and development stakeholders, including Queen Elizabeth Agwu, Resident Electoral Commissioner for Anambra State, and Chris Okeke of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) Nigeria.

Participants identified several persistent weaknesses in Nigeria’s electoral framework which includes the incomplete electronic transmission processes, challenges in maintaining and cleaning the voters registers, weak auditing and prosecution of electoral offences, continued influence of wealthy political actors, poor welfare, training, and selection standards for adhoc election staff and insecurity contributing to voter apathy.

• Speakers emphasized that electoral, security, and judicial institutions are deeply interdependent, warning that reforms in one sector cannot succeed without coordination across others.

At the end of the deliberations, a communiqué outlining recommendations across four key pillars: of election security and violence prevention, financial accountability and campaign finance regulation, result integrity, and broader institutional reforms with stronger citizen participation were made public.

In his closing remarks, Bukola Idowu, the Executive Director of KIMPACT Development Initiative, signed the communiqué on behalf of participants and described the summit as a timely intervention as Nigeria prepares for its next electoral cycle.

With just over a year before the country enters the full 2027 election cycle, the summit highlighted growing urgency among reform advocates.

While technological improvements such as expanded IReV result uploads represent progress, participants agreed that rebuilding public trust will ultimately require stronger enforcement of electoral laws, deeper institutional reforms, and sustained citizen engagement.

As Nigeria looks toward 2027, stakeholders at the KDI-hosted summit stressed that credible elections depend not only on systems and laws, but also on political will, institutional cooperation, and public vigilance.