“Exercise in futility,” according to INEC, “as politicians cannot avoid BVAS using purchased PVCs”

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says that candidates are trying in vain to rig the general elections in 2023.

The Bimodal Voter Registration System (BVRS), which will be used to authenticate and accredit voters starting in 2023, will reject biometric information from those who are not the original owners of traded PVCs, according to INEC.

Festus Okoye, the national commissioner of INEC, said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, “In terms of any politician avoiding the BVAS, I want to tell you that that would not happen; that is impossible.”

Two non-government groups, the Northern Elders Forum and the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project, said that politicians are buying PVCs from poor voters to rig the next elections.

But on Sunday, Okoye said that the politicians’ plan to rig the next election was “an impossibility” and that it couldn’t happen.

He said that it is against the law to have a PVC that doesn’t belong to you, and that it is the job of the security authorities to find and prosecute people who do this.

At one of the PVC collection centers, an INEC worker is handing out PVCs.

“Some politicians are quite upbeat; they typically prepare for bad weather; they continue to believe there is a chance they can defeat the BVAS that we will use for voter certification and verification, but their effort will be fruitless.”

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“Anyone who purchases a permanent voter card is only participating in a pointless endeavor.” The only thing anyone can do is make sure the voter does not cast a ballot on election day, but if you attempt to cast a ballot using a voter’s card that belongs to someone else and you arrive at the polling place on election day, that is impossible because the BVAS will not be able to capture your fingerprint, Okoye said.

Removal of Polling Places Near Politicians’ Homes
In order to safeguard electoral integrity, polling units have been evacuated from important politicians’ residences, churches, mosques, and shrines, according to the INEC commissioner. For free and fair elections in 2023, he asked voters to support the commission’s plans through shared responsibility and protecting the mandate.

He added, “We withdrew polling units from traditional rulers’ palaces, polling units next to politicians’ houses, polling units inside of temples, and polling units from locations we deemed unsuitable for electoral operations.”

an INEC officer on December 14, 2022, during the collection of permanent voter’s cards at the INEC headquarters in AMAC, Area 10 of Abuja. Sodiq Adelakun in a photo

Who is BVAS feared by?
There have been recent reports that politicians opposed to the BVAS are attempting to use the legal system to prevent INEC from using the BVAS and INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in the elections scheduled for next year. But the body in charge of elections has said many times that it is committed and determined to use the system for the general elections in 2023.

The Electoral Act of 2022 talks about the BVAS, which is a technical system that allows biometrics to be collected and results to be uploaded, among other things.

Many people have hailed it as an improvement over the smartcard reader used in the most recent general elections, which had some positive effects on the nation’s voting system.

INEC reveals its plans if BVAS fails.
On Sunday, Okoye said that the electoral management authority had previously planned for the usage of the BVAS in the more than 176,000 voting places across the nation. But he added that INEC has also planned for backup BVAS units in case a machine fails.

“We are going to have some spare BVAS for each electoral ward that can be quickly deployed if there is a problem or a challenge in any of our polling places.” Additionally, we have qualified technical support personnel who can step in if there is a problem with the BVAS.

Okoye said that if the BVAS keeps breaking down right up until the polls close, “the Electoral Act requires that we invalidate voting in that particular polling unit and hold a new election within 24 hours.”

 Channels Television