2023: BVAS Giving Election Riggers Nightmare But No Going Back To Manual Voting — INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has asked politicians who may want to undermine the 2022 general elections by seeking the return to incident forms and manual voting to perish the thought.

According to INEC, election riggers have been having nightmares since it introduced the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for voter accreditation and authentication during elections.

The commission said its decision to embrace technology in different aspects of the country’s electoral process was aimed at overcoming some of the challenges identified during previous elections.

INEC’s national commissioner and chairman, information, and voter education committee, Festus Okoye, stated this while speaking at a workshop on Wednesday in Abuja.

The workshop, which was held at the Wells Carlton Hotel, was organized for some journalists by the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung organization.

Okoye said, “The Commission will continue to use the BVAS to verify, confirm or authenticate the particulars of an intending voter. The BVAS is the new enemy of those engaged in identity theft and multiple voting as it verifies either the fingerprint or facial of the intending voter. Those that warehoused PVCs, the Consultants and Middlemen that design how to undermine the electoral process and those that hawk and distribute PVCs are now canvassing for the return to incident forms and manual voting.

“The Commission will not travel backward but will continue to improve on its technological base and innovations. The Commission will continue to work with security agencies to protect our equipment and personnel. With the BVAS and the uploading of polling unit level results, violence has left the Collation Centers and reverted back to the polling units.”

He noted that “Sections 47(2) of the Electoral Act secures the place of the Smart Card Reader or other Technological Device in the Electoral Process while section 50(2) of the Act gives the Commission the discretion to determine the mode of voting and transmission of results. The Commission had setbacks with the BVAS during the Anambra Governorship election and the FCT Area Council Elections and the BVAS performed well during the 6 bye-elections conducted by the Commission in four States of the Federation on the 26th day of February 2022.

“However, the Commission is conscious of the fact that technology does not operate itself and that the human element is ever-present. The Commission will continue to learn from issues and challenges that arise from the deployment of technology and will continue to innovate and improve on them.”

According to him, INEC will “expand the base of the training of its ad-hoc staff to acquaint them more with the workings of the BVAS and other technological innovations of the Commission” to address some of the issues raised by electorates during elections

Okoye said other areas of challenges where the electoral body was deliberately making efforts to address include multiple registrations and lack of an organized database of births and deaths in voters’ register, logistics, and security.