By Ayodele Abere
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has declared its state of readiness for the June 20, 2026 Ekiti State governorship election robust after a field test of its technology and logistics.
INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan led a delegation of national commissioners, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Administrative Secretary, Directors, and Media Representatives to inspect ongoing mock accreditation in selected polling units in Ado-Ekiti and Ikere-Ekiti.
Speaking at an interactive briefing with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, the Chairman said the mock exercise was a quality assurance protocol to test the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, under real field conditions.
“BVAS demonstrated optimal performance. Facial and fingerprint authentication averaged five to seven seconds per voter, within our compliance window,” he said.
“We have provisioned backup BVAS and deployed technical support engineers to every registration area. Additional devices are available to reach any polling unit within three minutes of a malfunction.”
He said the exercise confirmed INEC’s technological defence against identity theft and result manipulation was robust and fully operational. Results from the test were exported to the INEC backend portal in real time.
The Chairman announced that 1,059,360 voters are registered for the poll, which will hold in 2,445 polling units across 117 registration areas in Ekiti’s 16 local government areas.
“There is no polling unit with zero voters. Voting will take place in all units,” he said.
Training for ad hoc staff is concluding, with 52,446 NYSC members supporting. INEC directed that all polling units be activated by 7:30 a.m. latest 8:00 a.m. on election day, with voting to start at 8:30 a.m. sharp.
Racks at local government offices must be activated by 12 noon on Friday, June 19, with presiding officers, security agents, vehicles, and drivers present. Non-sensitive materials have been batched; sensitive materials will be moved to CBN for safekeeping and distributed under observation on June 19.
Transport agreements with NARTO and NURTW have been finalized.
The Chairman noted that INEC will also conduct six by-elections in four federal constituencies and two state constituencies in Kano and Kebbi states on the same day. He assured that national commissioners had been deployed to those states and that there is zero dilution of operational focus. “Identical BVAS safeguards and security protocols will apply”.
INEC said it had mapped about 500 polling units near vulnerable areas and 469 flashpoints. Extra security deployment will be made. The Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, has operationalized a risk matrix. A dedicated INEC security alert platform will escalate incidents to the Chairman’s desk within minutes.
“Security of voters and officials is priority. No voter should be assaulted or molested,” the Chairman said.
He urged journalists to verify facts and avoid reporting isolated glitches as systemic failure. Citing the FCT election, he said INEC’s new BVAS safeguard blocks uploading of incorrect results until corrections are made.
The commission extended PVC collection to Sunday, June 15, 2026, and added the SDP candidate after a Supreme Court ruling. Ballot papers remain open to all registered parties pending further court orders, but only INEC-cleared candidates are eligible for votes.
INEC reiterated zero tolerance for vote-buying, noting that enforcement rests with police, EFCC, and ICPC.
“Our sole job is to ensure the process is clean and every valid vote counts,” he said. “This election is a diagnostic milestone for 2027.”
