Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Cross River State, Dr. Johnson Sinikiem Alalibo Friday in Calabar revealed that Cross River State like other States nationwide has been given Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) which will be used for the conduct of 2023 general elections.
Alalibo stated this during an interactive session with newsmen at Calabar Municipality Council LGA of Cross River State shortly after concluding a 4 -day familiarization tour to the 18 INEC LGAs offices in Cross River State.
He explained that other non-sensitive materials including voting cubicles are still being expected from INEC headquarters before the end of next week.
Alalibo stressed that BVAS will be deployed for Accreditation on Election Day in the 3281 polling units in the State to prevent rigging and other electoral malfeasance and violence.
The Commissioner explained that once authentication of facials and fingerprints fail, the voter will not be allowed to vote.
“This means that security of votes are assured with the double capturing of facials and fingerprints stressing that he is confident that the hitech equipment (BVAS) which is recently introduced by the Commission will ensure that every vote will counts.
While giving an insight of the numerous advantages associated with BVAS usage, Alalibo stated that the polling units results will be snapped using BVAS at the end of the process and uploaded to INEC Result Viewing portal (IReV) by the Presiding Officers before proceeding to the Collation centres.
The REC assurred the people that the uploaded results can be viewed by everyone globally so long as one creates an account on IReV portal to view the results.
“The testimonies of the success of the technology are visible in all the off cycle elections conducted by the Commission during the last Governorship Elections in Edo, Ondo, Anambra, Ekiti and Osun as well as other bye- Elections held in the recent past across the Country” The REC stated.
In his reaction to ongoing renovations of destroyed INEC facilities in Cross River State, during the End SARS protests, Alalibo averred that the Commission has made several renovations across the the three senatorial districts of Cross River State.
He said that he has no doubt that all the ongoing renovations of INEC offices destroyed and dilapidated structures in the State will be completed before take off of 2023 general elections.
While urging staff of INEC to be weary of partisan Politics, the REC charged the Commission’s staff to reciprocate and complement the gestures of the Commission to staff which had done a lot in the area of capacity building by remaining loyal to the Commission.
