2023 election: INEC to conduct ‘mock accreditation’ ahead February polls

 

..Confirms deployment of BVAS machine across 774 LGAs as tested ok

.says Nigerian voting population more than rest of West Africa

 

Obiora Ifoh, Abuja

 

 

The Independent National Electoral Commission has revealed that it will conduct mock accreditation nationwide ahead of the 2023 general elections.

 

The INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, made the disclosure on Tuesday while speaking at the Chatham House, London.

 

He said the mock accreditation would be carried out across selected polling units to ascertain the integrity of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, before the main elections begin in February.

 

Yakubu, however, further revealed that every BVAS machine deployed across the 774 local government had been tested, adding that the functionality of the machines was impressive.

 

 

He also stated that back up machines have been readily provided in case of system glitches.

 

He added that with all preparations on ground, the commission is really “comfortable and happy.”

 

Yakubu said, “We have the machines for the 2023 elections but we didn’t want to take chances. Each and every machine has been tested and confirmed functional. For the last two weeks our officials were in the 36 states of the federation testing these machines, and the functionality is simply encouraging.

 

“The second thing we’re going to do, and pretty soon, is to conduct mock accreditation exercise nationwide ahead of the elections. We won’t wait until the main elections come, we will test the integrity of these machines with real life voters in selected polling units across the country.

 

“We did so in Ekiti and Osun, it was fantastic and we’re going to do so nationwide. Increasingly our people are becoming more excited about the deployment of this technology and we’re really happy.

 

“Also in terms of the numbers of these BVAS machines, we always make provision in case of malfunction or glitches. There is always a back up. We have IReV technical support that will fix the machines in the unlikely event of any glitches.

 

“However, where it fails to function completely in a polling unit, from previous experience there were isolated polling units, the law has a remedy that the commission should re-mobilise and re-conduct elections in the affected polling units within 24 hours, so we are really, really comfortable where we are.”

Prof. Mahmood Yakubu,  said available data indicates that Nigeria has 16.7 million more voters than the rest of West Africa.

“Based on figures compiled from electoral commissions and interior ministries in West Africa, Nigeria’s current voter population is 16.7 million higher than the 76.7 million registered in all the other countries put together – and there are 14 other elections in the sub-region.

“This means that a general election in Nigeria is like conducting an election in the whole of West Africa and beyond,” he said.

Yakubu dismissed any speculation of plans to put off the elections scheduled for February 25th and March 11th, saying INEC is not contemplating let alone planning to postponing the 2023 general elections.

“We are going ahead to conduct the election as scheduled,” he said, adding that though there are “tremendous” challenges and expectations of INEC, the Commission was a beneficiary of “enormous” goodwill in Nigeria and beyond.

“We can surmount the challenges and ensure elections continue to get better,” the INEC chairman said.

Early choice of election technology management tools, especially the main election technology, is very critical for success, according to him.

“We know that political actors often try to undermine the process by attacking the technology, casting doubts on its suitability, bypassing its use or indeed seeking to undermine its security.

“This informed the early choice of a new voter accreditation technology, using an electronic device called Bimordal Voter Accreditation System,” he said.