Stakeholders have risen in defence of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) against alleged plot to stop tecnological innovations adopted by INEC to safeguard the integrity of 2023 elections.
Technology and innovation are playing an important role in the ongoing transformation of Nigeria’s electoral processes.
But some political actors are said to be up in arms against the use of one of the most recent technologies being deployed for the 2023 general elections, the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System . Registration sites were set up across the country for prospective voters to fill OMR forms with their fingerprints, ID photographs and other basic information also captured.
In the post 2019 elections, reports by PREMIUM TIMES and other media platforms for instance, captured party agents buying voters’ cards with the complicity of INEC officials. Civil groups and political parties in separate interviews with PREMIUM TIMES said this will make the 2023 general elections to be different.
However, BVAS gained a better appraisal at the off-cycle governorship elections in Ekiti and Osun held this year. Drawing from his on-the-ground experiences on election monitoring over the years, Mr Eno, said INEC does not need to have back up for every BVAS machine at every PU. He said that the campaign for the return of incident forms is dead on arrival given the giant innovative strides Nigeria has recorded in the conduct of elections over the years.
In the event of sustained malfunction of the BVAS, the INEC guidelines mandate the suspension of accreditation and voting until a new machine is made available.