Explainer: What if BVAS fails in the 2027 election?

Ahead of Nigeria’s 2027 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), led by Professor Joash Amupitan, has clarified procedures for failures involving BVAS and the IReV portal. A localized outage will not stop voting or collation in unaffected polling units; if a device cannot be repaired or replaced, voting in the affected unit will be rescheduled for the following day. Collation may continue depending on whether the uncollected votes could change the overall result. INEC plans to deploy 57,000 additional BVAS devices, replace batteries, improve IReV, and send RATECH technical support teams to polling areas.