Despite the attendant hitches with the use of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the authentication of voters in recent elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has maintained it will review and improve its functionality for the off-season governorship polls in Ekiti and the Osun States before the 2023 general election.
The Commission said it remains convinced the deployment of technology in elections “safeguards the integrity of the vote and provides a better guarantee for electoral credibility than the best manual process”.
INEC Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu observed: “The outcome of elections conducted since the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the Isoko South I State Constituency bye-election, followed by the Anambra State Governorship election and most recently in the FCT Area Council election has been positively adjudged by observers as credible”.
He however noted: “The challenges to the optimal functionality of the device are acknowledged and we are working on them”.
Yakubu spoke at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the Commission’s Headquarters in Abuja.
He argued: “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”.
He continued: “On Election Day administration, the Commission has over the years made giant strides in improving electoral logistics, staff recruitment, training, deployment and the introduction of technology for voter verification and authentication.
“The creation of Registration Area Centres (RACs) improved the early opening of polls. The benefits of these new innovations to the electoral process and the credibility of our elections have been enormous
“Even as we continue to conduct elections, the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise which started in June last year is now in its 3rd Quarter.
“In view of the forthcoming elections, the Commission has decided to devolve the CVR exercise to Ward level in both Ekiti and Osun States to enable more citizens register.”
