By Ezeocha Nzeh
Ahead of the 2023 general election, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), has been tasked to do more to improve on the capability of its newly introduced technology, the Biomodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS), to ensure the conduct of an election that would be devoid of complains over avoidable disenfranchisement of legitimate voters
The charge came even as what would have ended as a transparent, free and credible election in Saturdays FCT Area council polls was marred by several cases of malfunctioning BVAS which was newly introduced into the electoral process by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
BVAS is one of the latest technological innovations introduced by INEC, which it used to replace the Smart Card Reader and the Incident Form, in the last Anambra state governorship election in November 6, 2021, though with similar hitches like in last Saturday’s Area Council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT)
There were cases of failure or malfunctioning of the new technology which either failed to work, or could not identify credible voters or even delayed, taking much time before it could identify those who were lucky
Our correspondents who monitored he election in several locations reports that despite the aparty hat greeted the exercise, few voters who urned out on the election were greeted wittth frustration following the non workability of the BVAS
At Chibiri EC 30 A, 001, one of the adhoc staff complained bitterly that one BVAS was grossly insufficient to cater for the over 2000 registered voters in the polling unit.
“We arrived here very early, started by 8.40am but as you can see that as at 11.30am, we have only attended to less than 20 voters. You can see the electorate under the sun but we are facing helpless situation with the rate the BVAS is going. It is rejecting many of the voters and we could do nothing to manage the situation than to tell the rejected voters to wait by the side to try them again later. One BVAS machine is certainly not enough for the over 2000 registered voters here,” the adhoc staff complained.
It was the same story in Kuje where the BVAS was malfunctioning and insufficient in almost all the voting centres,. A voter at Government Technical School, Kuje, expressed disappointment that BVAS could not authenticate him after waiting for more than two hours.
“I came here before 8.00am, wai
ted on the long queue for over two hours only for me to get there and the machine could not authenticate me to vote. They told me to wait but why should I wait. INEC should be up to its responsibility.
“Why should INEC not perfect this technology before using it to suffer the voters. What could be more torturous than the machine authenticating one out of five voters? I am totally disappointed with INEC over this new technology,” he fumed, storming out of the voting centre.
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The same glitches were experienced by voters in Karu, Bwari, and some voting centers in AMAC, where the BVAS delayed voting because it could not accredit legitimate voters who came with their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs0 and claimed that they have been voting at the centers in previous exercises
INEC having however, admitted that there were glitches with the usage of the Bimodal Voters Authentication System machines during the election, has assured that it will it will review the performance.
INEC FCT Resident Electoral Commissioner, Yahaya Bello, said that in some cases, there were misunderstandings with officials handling the machine.
Bello said, “We have observed the malfunctioning of BVAS. We have seen it function and malfunction. There are a lot of reports in respect of the malfunctioning of the BVAS in some places.
“Equally, there is maybe a misunderstanding of what to do with the BVAS; a lot of the officers don’t know what to do with them.
“INEC has invested to prepare for this election and from the report we have received from those outside, the preparations were in good stead only that the BVAS were not functioning as they were expected.”
Bello, however, said that the National Commissioners and six other Residents Electoral Commissioners deployed for the election are expected to write a report on the situation in order to find a lasting solution to the problem ahead of subsequent elections.
He said, “This election has the complete involvement of the commission. The chairman of INEC deployed three National Commissioners to this election and also deployed six Residents Electoral Commissioners from various regions to join us in this election.
“They write a report and the report would be weighed when the commission meets. They would look at it and then the function of the BVAS or absence of it would definitely be discussed. That is where the next level of discussion would start but for now, all we can say is that we have gone round and seen that the BVAS have not performed the way they are expected.
“What we are going to do about it is an issue the commission would sit down and look at. We have so many elections coming after this one.”
