By Felix Khanoba
Prominent pro-democracy civil society organisation, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), on Saturday deployed 111 field observers to monitor the mock accreditation exercise organised by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The AUTHORITY reports that INEC organised the exercise to test-run its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the forthcoming general elections.
But in a statement at the weekend signed by its director, Idayat Hassan, CDD expressed concerns over some shortcomings observed in the mock accreditation exercise, and called on the electoral body to urgently fix the lapses before the commencement of the 2023 polls.
The CDD statement reads in full : “The Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) through its Election Analysis Centre (EAC) deployed 111 field observers to monitor the mock accreditation exercise conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on Saturday February 4, 2023.
CDD deployed three (3) observers per state across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The mock accreditation exercise, which INEC conducted across 436 polling units, was organised to test the functionality and reliability of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the February 25 and March 11, 2023 elections. INEC conducted the mock accreditation in one out of every 405 polling units. What this fundamentally means is, for every one polling unit where the accreditation took place, there were at least 404 others left out – such a wide vacuum is already a concern. As it stands, only 436 of 176,846 polling units were covered, which is less than one percent of the area to be covered.
Based on field observers’ data on the exercise, CDD EAC found instances of late arrival of INEC officials to their respective polling units. In several cases, INEC poll officials had not arrived for commencement of the process by 11:30am, whereas they were supposed to have arrived between 8:00 and 8:30am. These instances of late arrival of poll officials were documented in polling units at Community Primary School, Enugu, Ngwo, where officials arrived at 11am. In Kungana Special Primary School, Suntai, Taraba State, and Polling Unit 002 at Damilu Primary School, Jimeta, observer data indicated that poll officials arrived at 11:30am, three and half hours behind the scheduled time. Late arrival of INEC officials was recorded in much of the 36 states and in 58% of the 111 polling units observed.
“Our observer data shows that the BVAS worked smoothly across the majority of polling units observed. At an average of between 30 seconds and two minutes, the BVAS accredited voters who showed up for the exercise. Although CDD EAC observer data recorded isolated instances where the BVAS experienced glitches while trying to capture the finger prints and facial features of elderly voters, the device eventually used either the fingerprint or facial mode to get the details of the senior citizens. Our observer data indicates that the BVAS recorded more biometric authentication through facial recognition than through fingerprint.
“In State Primary School, Otuokpoti Ward 2 located in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, observer data showed that out of the six voters accredited as at 11:40am, five were authenticated through facial recognition, while only one voter was accredited using fingerprint authentication.
“Our observation of the mock accreditation exercise similarly documented a spate of low turnout of voters for the exercise. In several polling units observed, less than 3 percent of registered voters turned out to take part in the mock accreditation and voting. The low turnout was traced to low awareness. The poor awareness, and subsequent low turnout made comprehensive assessment of the BVAS impossible. Our observers similarly recorded cases of voters who were not registered at the polling units where the mock accreditation took place, showing up to participate in the exercise due to lack of information about how the process was being conducted.
“It was noted that a good number of voters who had collected their Permanent Voters Card (PVCs) simply assumed they could be part of the process as long as they had their PVCs. This was the situation at the Polling Unit located in Ebsu Primary School in Azumiri Azugwu Ward, where scores of voters who wanted to participate in the process were disappointed as they were turned back.
In the course of the mock accreditation exercise, CDD EAC observer deployed in Polling Unit 3, Aghazie Square, Onusa Ward in Nkwerre LGA of Imo State, reported being harassed and intimidated by security officials attached to some government functionaries in the State. They insisted our observer could neither observe the process or take pictures around the vicinity of the polling unit.
“The observer reported an attempt to seize his mobile phone by the officials. He was later forced to leave the polling unit due to threats of physical violence by the security officials and some thugs.
CDD EAC observation indicated dampened confidence of some voters over the misconception that the malfunction of the BVAS was responsible for the Election Petition Tribunal judgement, which nullified the victory of the INEC declared winner in the Osun State Governorship election of July 2022. This misconception about the role of the BVAS in the nullification of earlier declared victories would have to be urgently addressed by INEC to prevent voter apathy in the actual elections, come February 25 and March 11, 2023.
“CDD also recommends urgent steps by INEC to address logistic challenges, particularly late arrival of poll officials.”
