The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines as very efficient and impressive ahead of the 2023 general elections.
INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this when he visited some polling units in Abuja on Saturday, to observe the mock accreditation exercise ahead of the polls.
The mock accreditation began at exactly 8.00am. Registered voters, who came early for the accreditation, spent less than two minutes to complete the process.
Those who had challenges with fingerprints were easily captured using facial capturing.
Polling unit officers further said that the BVAS machines worked faster with facial capturing than finger capturing.
The INEC chairman, who went round Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), said he was optimistic about the performance of BVAS and that the goal of INEC during the ongoing mock accreditation was to ensure that the machines are working optimally before the general elections.
According to him, “What we intend to achieve is to further test the integrity of the machines we are going to deploy on the election day. We are satisfied with the test carried out in our office but we needed the machines in the field ahead of the election bearing in mind that this is the first time we are deploying the machines nationwide.
“We have identified 436 polling units nationwide on the equality of states of the federation on the basis of two local government areas per senatorial district and four polling units per local government. In FCT, four polling units were selected.
“So far, so good, voters have been verified using their PVCs and authenticated using their fingerprints or facial on the basis of which they will be given the ballot paper on election day after successful accreditation.
“In the polling units visited so far, no report of failure. The machines performed optimally and this is the report we are getting nationwide.”
He noted that the Commission will make spare machines available on Election Day in case of any malfunction so that there will be immediate response and fixing of the machines.
