Digital Electoral Security in Nigeria: Technology, Information Disorder and Institutional Trust, 2015–2026

Digitalisation has become embedded in Nigeria’s electoral administration and political communication, but its security implications remain contested. This article examines how electoral technology, information disorder and institutional trust have interacted in Nigeria between 2015 and 2026. It asks how technological change has altered electoral security, how social media and disinformation have affected the electoral information environment, and under what conditions digitalisation can contribute to or undermine political stability. The study adopts a qualitative longitudinal documentary design. Evidence is drawn from official Independent National Electoral Commission reports, electoral and data-protection legislation, election observation and civil-society reports, and selected peer-reviewed and scholarly literature. The analysis traces the transition from the Smart Card Reader used for voter authentication in 2015 and 2019 to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and INEC Results Viewing platform introduced for the 202. The findings show that digitalisation has reduced some traditional administrative vulnerabilities while creating new dependencies on networks, devices, data systems and information infrastructures. Social media has widened channels for voter education, mobilisation and citizen monitoring, but it has also increased the speed and reach of misinformation, disinformation and manipulated media. The article therefore advances a socio-technical account of electoral security in which technology operates through institutional and informational conditions rather than as an independent determinant of political stability. It recommends integrated electoral cybersecurity, rapid institutional communication, information-integrity measures, digital inclusion and safeguards for emerging synthetic media.