The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of Nigeria is looking to improve the performance of its Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the upcoming off-cycle governorship elections in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi States on November 11.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said at a regular consultative meeting with civil society organisations (CSOs) in Abuja on Wednesday 25th October 2023 that the commission conducted a mock accreditation exercise involving actual voters in designated polling units in the three states two weeks ago to test the efficacy of the BVAS for both biometric authentication of voters and the upload of results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
Yakubu said the mock accreditation exercise was successful and the commission is encouraged by the test results. He said the commission is looking forward to improved performance of the BVAS in voter accreditation and result upload in the forthcoming Governorship elections and beyond.
The BVAS is a new technology that was used for the first time in the 2023 general elections. It has been praised by some election observers for its potential to improve the accuracy and transparency of elections in Nigeria. However, the BVAS has also been criticized for its technical glitches and slow performance.
INEC has consistently maintained the BVAS achieved at least 90 percent success rate during the General Election.
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