Janet Samuel, Abuja
As the off-cycle Governorship Elections of Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa draw closer, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has restated efforts in improving the functionality of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine for voter accreditation and result upload.
INEC National Chairman, Prof, Mammod Yakubu gave the assurance during the quarterly consultative meeting with the Resident Electoral Commissioner (RECS) on Friday in Abuja.
Prof Yakubu, who noted that the Mock accreditation excercise that took place last week was to ascertain the efficacy of the (BVAS) for biometric authentication of voters, expressing hope that the there would be greater improvement come Nov 11.
On the result upload to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV), the INEC Chairman disclosed that the Commission recorded success from the test during the mock accreditation excercise which is an indicator of better performance during the forthcoming election.
“Last week, we conducted a mock accreditation exercise involving actual voters in designated polling units in the three States. We had two objectives for the exercise. First, to test the efficacy of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for especially biometric authentication of voters. Secondly, to upload the result to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV). Both tests were successful. We look forward to improved performance of the BVAS in voter accreditation and result upload in the forthcoming elections.”
According to him, the Commission plans to deploy a total of 46,084 regular and ad hoc staff for the election.
“We have so far accredited 126 national and international organisations collectively deploying 11,000 observers for the election. Although the portal for media accreditation closes on Tuesday 24th October 2023, we have received applications from 80 media organisations seeking to deploy 1,203 personnel made up of journalists and technical/support staff to report on the elections. The 18 political parties participating in the elections are deploying 137,934 agents made up of 130,093 polling and 7,841 collation agents. We are also finalizing arrangements for vehicles and boats for land and maritime movement of personnel and materials.
“Such massive deployment requires a secure environment which is beyond our immediate responsibilities. As we said repeatedly, we are concerned about the prevailing insecurity and election-related violence in the three States.”
He assured that adequate deployment by the security agencies is in top gear to ensure proper security of lives and properties before, during and after the election.
