We are confident, BVAS will work efficiently in 2023 elections – INEC Chair

The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has expressed confidence that Bimodal Voter Accreditation Systems, BVAS will perform efficiently during Saturday’s Presidential, NASS election.

Yakubu who stated this during a meeting with leaders of foreign election observers mission on Wednesday, in Abuja, also said this is the first time that “we are deploying the machine for national election, we conducted a mock accreditation exercise and the exercise had some issues we have addressed.”

Yakubu explained, “The BVAS confirms that the cards issued by the commission and presented by the voter is genuine and the voter is authenticated using the fingerprint and where it failed, the facial. Where both fail, the voter can’t vote. That is a matter of law.

“After the process is completed at the polling unit, the image of the polling unit result will be taken by the BVAS and uploaded into what we call the INEC Result Viewing Portal where citizens can see polling unit level results as the processes are completed at polling unit level.

“The difference between what Kenya did in 2015 and what we are doing is that we are not transmitting raw figures for collation. In fact, the law does not allow for electronic collation of results. So, we don’t transmit raw figures because raw figures transmitted online are more susceptible to hacking while images of a document are not susceptible to hacking.”

He further said, “Like every new technology, initially, it will present its own challenges. In the last elections in Osun and Ekiti, the BVAS performed well.

“So, we are confident that on Saturday, the machines will work and perform optimally.”