From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has revealed that it has concluded the configuration of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for the conduct of the June 18 Ekiti State governorship election.
Chairman of the Commission Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who made the disclosure, also announced that the commission has also finalised arrangements to undertake a mock voter accreditation exercise in Ekiti ahead of the main poll.
He also disclosed that the Commission has decided to suspend the online registration in the next three weeks to enable the online registrants to complete their registration physically at the designated centres before the exercise is suspended on June 30.
In his remarks at the second quarterly meeting with Covil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Abuja, he said: “On election technology, we have reviewed the functionality of BVAS following the complaints received after the recent Area Council elections in the FCT held on February 12, 2022. Two weeks later, the Commission conducted six bye-elections in four States across four geo-political zones of the country covering rural, suburban and urban areas.
“It was the most extensive geopolitical deployment of the BVAS since it was pioneered in the Isoko South I State Constituency bye-election in Delta State in June last year. In these bye-elections, the BVAS functioned optimally as attested to by the reports of your field observers accredited by the Commission.
“The lessons learnt from the most recent bye-elections have been taken into consideration as we prepare for the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun State Governorship elections. The Commission has just finished the configuration of the BVAS for the Ekiti State Governorship election. We will also undertake a mock voter accreditation exercise in Ekiti State ahead of the main election on June 18, 2022, the details of which will be announced shortly,” he said.
While giving an update on the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise, he said: “As you are aware, it ends next month June 30, 2022. Both the online pre-registration as well as the physical registration at designated centres are taking place simultaneously.
“However, online pre-registrants would require time to schedule appointments to complete their registration physically at designated centres. For this reason, the Commission has decided to suspend the online registration in the next three weeks, that is May 30.
“This will enable the online registrants to complete their registration physically at the designated centres before the exercise is suspended on 30th June 2022. This will enable the Commission to clean up the registration data, print the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and compile the register ahead of the 2023 General Election.
“On the cleaning up of the registration data, the Commission presented a report on the CVR exercise covering the period from June to December 2021. For the first time, the Commission deployed the Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) which is a comprehensive and robust system involving not just fingerprint identification but also facial biometric recognition.
“The report of the ABIS is included among the documents in your folders for this meeting. There will also be a presentation on the exercise by our ICT Department,” he promised.