The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) voting devices have never malfunctioned and won’t in 2023 when Nigerians go to the polls.
Mahmood Yakubu, the INEC chairman, made the announcement on Saturday in Abuja while reviewing operations at voting places in the FCT where simulated voter accreditation events were performed utilising BVAS technology.
“In the two polling units we have visited so far, there is no report of failure; the machines have performed optimally and this is the report we are getting so far nationwide.
“We have also made contingency arrangements like we will do on Election Day, that there is a spare machine in case and in the unlikely event of a malfunction we will be able to respond and fix the machines’’ he said.
Yakubu clarified that, according to the fake exercise that was conducted, it takes less than 30 seconds to certify a voter, and that this was the information that INEC was receiving from all of the chosen polling places across the country.
“The speed is good and also the authentication is good.
“The BVAS has never failed anywhere,’’ he stressed.
Yakubu said that no failure incidents had been reported, and INEC was expecting and praying that, after putting in a lot of effort, the machines will function flawlessly on February 25 and March 12.
He guaranteed that electronic results transmission and certification will take place without a hitch throughout the elections.
“I would not like to comment on the Osun issue because it is a matter in court and is sub-judice.
“However, in every situation the Commission learns, carries the experience from what has happened to improve the processes for the next election.
“We have learned some lessons from what happened and one of the lessons is to be able to transmit the accreditation data,’’ he said.
In addition, the INEC chairman promised on Saturday that INEC will submit the accreditation figures and the election day results concurrently so that they would rhyme.
He said that INEC updated its Results Viewing Portal with a new Uniform Resource Locator (URL) where both the accreditation and results could be accessed.
“We are going to transmit both the accreditation figures and the results on Election Day.
“We are giving assurance to Nigerians that on Election Day, both the accredited data and the actual votes cast will be transmitted simultaneously and accurately,’’ the INEC boss stressed.
Yakubu said that the mock exercise was set up to check the devices’ dependability even further before Election Day.
Given that this was the first time the machines had been used countrywide, he advised testing them in the field before the election.
According to him, INEC chose 436 polling locations countrywide for the mock election based on the equality of states and the assumption that there are two local governments for each senatorial district.
Each local government area where the exercise took place had four polling units, for a total of 16 polling units per state.
“Voters are verified using their PVCs and then authenticated using their fingerprint or facial recognition on the machines on the basis of which they will be given the ballot papers on Election Day after successful accreditation.”
