Mock Voter Accreditation Confirms Efficiency Of BVAS Machines, Says INEC

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machine as very efficient and impressive ahead of the 2023 general elections.

Chairman, INEC, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, disclosed this when he visited some polling units in Abuja yesterday to observe the mock accreditation ahead of the polls.

The mock accreditation began at exactly 8.00 am. Early voters who came for the accreditation, spent less than two minutes to complete the process.

Those who had challenges with fingerprints were easily captured, using facial.

Polling unit officers further said that the BVAS machine works faster with facial capturing than finger capturing.

The INEC chairman who went round Abuja Area Council said he is optimistic about the performance of the BVAS and that the goal of INEC during the ongoing mock accreditation is to ensure 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 we can respond immediately and fix the machines.