Osun Voters Satisfied With Accreditation Speed As REC Advocates for Confidence In BVAS

As the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) embarked on mock accreditation exercise ahead of 2023 General Election, residents of Osun State have applauded the commission over the short speed that Bimodal Voters Accreditation System(BVAS) used to recognize voters.

Checks by THE WHISTLER on Saturday in five local government areas of the state where mock accreditation exercise took place revealed that BVAS machine recognize the identity of voters within 20 seconds to 30 seconds.

The five local government areas which were visited include, Orolu, Olorunda, Osogbo, Egbedore and Ede North.

The turnout for the exercise recorded about 30 to 40 electorate at each of the polling units as the leadership of the commission also went round to monitor the mock exercise.

Speaking with some of the voters at the polling units, they commended INEC for the efficacy of BVAS machine as they expressed confidence that over-voting will not be recorded during the general election due to the speed used by the machine to accredit voters.

One of the voters, Samuel Lekan said, “My accreditation was done within 15 seconds, it is very fast compared to the period of Osun governorship election. I just implore INEC to ensure strict compliance with accreditation by BVAS to prevent over-voting. If the speed of BVAS is like this on election day I don’t see any reason why some people will bypass BVAS to vote.”

Speaking during the exercise, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Dr Mutiu Agboke said, “The purpose of the exercise have been achieved, the commission put up this accreditation to test run the efficiency or efficacy of the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS), our enlightenment programme has been on the need of the public not to erode their confidence in BVAS.”

He explained that, mock accreditation exercise is a deliberate and conscious effort of the commission to let them see how BVAS is going to perform on the election day.

“This exercise will make us to see how BVAS is going to perform, how is going to run, what is the speed of the accreditation and most of the people that showed up for the accreditation, they were accredited within seconds and it shows that even where we have crowd on Election Day we can get them as fast as possible before they cast their votes.”

He assured that INEC is ready for 2023 General Election and will not rest until credible elections is delivered.”