2027: INEC Suspends Staff Annual Leave, Raises Allowances

The Independent National Electoral Commission has directed its staff to suspend further annual leave as it intensifies preparations for the 2027 general elections.

The INEC Chairman, Prof. Joash Amupitan, gave the directive on Friday during an interactive meeting with staff members in the North-Central zone in Lokoja, Kogi State.

The commission disclosed this in a statement posted on its official X handle on Friday.

Amupitan said the directive was part of measures to ensure that personnel remained available for the administrative and operational demands of the forthcoming elections.

“The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has directed its personnel to suspend further annual leave as preparations intensify for the 2027 General Election, while announcing a package of workforce, welfare and logistical measures aimed at strengthening its nationwide operations.

“Addressing senior officials and field personnel from the six North-Central states and the Federal Capital Territory, Amupitan said the approaching elections required heightened administrative discipline, operational efficiency and absolute commitment from every member of staff,” the statement read.

He warned staff against negligence, absenteeism, financial impropriety and partisanship, directing Resident Electoral Commissioners and Administrative Secretaries to enforce attendance and accountability measures.

The chairman also announced a series of welfare and operational reforms, including a new salary structure, enhanced field allowances and increased funding for state offices.

“The statement said, “The chairman’s address also outlined a series of institutional changes, including the introduction of a new salary structure, enhanced field allowances, increased state office funding and the provision of additional operational vehicles.

“A major component of the reforms is the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure (CEMBSS), which, according to the Chairman, took effect from January 1, 2026, following the Commission’s move away from the conventional civil service salary structure. He said processes for cash-backing the arrangement were ongoing.

“He also disclosed that the commission had approved enhanced salary, hazard and field allowance packages for personnel, alongside a 150 per cent increase in monthly overhead allocations to state offices, effective July 1, 2026.”

On logistics, the INEC chairman said operational pick-up vehicles had been distributed to state and local government offices nationwide, while 20 Sports Utility Vehicles had been procured for Resident Electoral Commissioners.

He added that Administrative Secretaries would also receive new vehicles to improve the commission’s operational capacity.

Amupitan said INEC was also strengthening its technological capacity ahead of the elections, including configuring 57,000 newly procured Bimodal Voter Accreditation System devices to support voter verification and accreditation.

He said the commission was auditing its electronic result management systems, including the eEC8A verification platform, to ensure transparent transmission of polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal.

The chairman further disclosed that the preliminary voters’ register had been published for public scrutiny, while the certified register was scheduled for release on December 15.

On election security, he announced a coordinated arrangement involving security agencies under the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, with structures extending from the national level to local government areas and registration area centres.

He also warned against misinformation, fabricated media content and artificial intelligence-generated deepfakes, saying operational failures could undermine public confidence in the electoral process.

The commission said it had completed nine of the 14 major milestones in its statutory timetable for the 2027 elections.

The presidential and National Assembly elections are scheduled for January 16, 2027, while governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections will hold on February 6.

The North-Central meeting, which brought together officials from Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau and the Federal Capital Territory, concluded INEC’s nationwide zonal readiness assessment.

The zone has 15,448,869 registered voters, according to figures presented by the chairman.

The latest directive follows a similar engagement with staff in the South-South zone in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where Amupitan reiterated that the commission would not shift the 2027 election dates and urged personnel to ensure that voters were not disenfranchised through operational failures.