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We’ll review BVAS functionality ahead of polls, says INEC

By Sodiq Omolaoye, Abuja
16 February 2022   |   2:45 am
Despite glitches with the usage of the Bimodal Voters Authentication System (BVAS) machines during Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council election, the Independent National Electoral Commission

[FILES] INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu. Photo; FACBOOK/INECNIGERIA

Despite glitches with the usage of the Bimodal Voters Authentication System (BVAS) machines during Saturday’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has vowed to deploy the technology in subsequent elections.

The commission, however, promised to improve the functionality of the machine in the forthcoming by-elections and off-season governorship polls in Ekiti and Osun states as well as the 2023 general election.

INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, gave the assurance at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) in Abuja yesterday.

According to him, the outcome of elections conducted since the introduction of BVAS, including the FCT Area Council poll, had been positively adjudged by observers as credible.

Yakubu said the commission acknowledged the challenges to the optimal functionality of the device and was working on them.

He said: “When the commission introduced the BVAS last year, the compact device was intended to achieve two objectives. First is the verification of the genuineness of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and the fingerprint or facial authentication of voters during accreditation.

“Secondly, to replace the Z-pad for uploading the polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real-time on Election Day. So far, the BVAS has performed optimally in verifying the authenticity of PVCs and uploading images of polling unit results to the IReV.

“We will review and improve its functionality for biometric accreditation of voters in the forthcoming bye-elections and off-season governorship elections before the 2023 general election. The commission remains convinced that the deployment of technology in our elections safeguards the integrity of the vote and provides a better guarantee for electoral credibility than the best manual process.”

He announced that INEC had devolved the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise to ward level in both Ekiti and Osun to enable more citizens to register ahead of the June and July governorship elections in the states.

He stated that the commission was considering the devolution of the exercise nationwide beyond its state and local council offices where the registration currently takes place to other designated centres, saying it was one of the major issues for discussion at the meeting with RECs.

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