INEC chairman promises use of BVAS in governorship election, meets with RECs

The chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu, has promised Nigerians that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be used in the forthcoming governorship and state legislature elections.

Yakubu gave the assurance today at a meeting with all Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) at the INEC headquarters in Abuja.

Amid the huge outcry that greeted the manual collation of results and alleged alteration of figures in the Saturday, February 25 presidential and National Assembly elections, Mahmood assured Nigerians that the BVAS machines would be well used for the March 11 elections.

Already, the leading opposition parties at the presidential election, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)  and the Labour Party (LP), had headed to court, citing infringement in the provisions of the Electoral Act 2022 on the use of electronic transmission of results.

Some political analysts had condemned the presidential and National Assembly elections as essentially flawed due to the inability of the national electoral body to follow its own electoral guidelines.

A professor of Law at Baze University and political analyst, Sam Amadi, said INEC violated its own law by not uploading results.

“Clause 38 of the guidelines issued by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says it is a crime not to do so. One of the things people cannot understand is why INEC has not done this. Why do we have long hours of delay that have now created all kinds of problems? My worry is that we have not improved since 2015,” Amadi said.

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The official spokesperson of the PDP Presidential Campaign Council (PCC), Daniel Bwala, feared voter apathy could return if INEC failed to use BVAS and build confidence with the new Electoral Act, 2022.

Yakubu said INEC was working on the BVAS machines to avoid a repeat of the glitches recorded in the last Saturday’s elections.

The agenda of the meeting was not disclosed to the media, though journalists were invited to cover the opening.

This meeting held exactly one week after the presidential and National Assembly elections, and one week to the governorship and state assembly elections.

In his welcome remarks, the INEC chairman noted that the meeting was being held to review performances at the last week’s elections, adding there were lessons to be learnt from last week’s elections, especially as they relate to logistics management.

He urged the RECs to work harder to ensure that the governorship elections do not experience the same problems recorded in the last elections, while warning that staff who erred would be punished.

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Harrison Edeh is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, always determined to drive advocacy for good governance through holding public officials and businesses accountable.