Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The outcome of the November 6 governorship election in Anambra State assumed a different twist, yesterday, when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) received reports from accredited observers, who monitored the election.
Altogether, 78 election observers including six foreign election observers briefed INEC on the conduct of the Anambra governorship election.
The observers, who though commended the conduct of the election, however, lamented the malfunctioning of the Biomodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) as one key issue that almost marred the election.
One after the other, the observers said apart from the tense security situation in the state during the governorship election, what nearly marred the electoral process was the malfunctioning of the BVAS.
Some of the election observers blamed the malfunctioning of the BVAS on poor GSM network in the state.
But they commended INEC for its efforts to conduct free and fair election, adding that the observed difficulties must be addressed.
Coordinator of the Advocate for Peoples Rights and Justice, Victor Giwa, said the processes were not right for the BVAS to function as it was not susceptible to the environment.
He explained that much as the BVAS functioned very well in the Isoko Federal Constituency, it was too early to unleash such a system on a bigger election like a governorship election.
Other observers in their comments, called on INEC to overhaul the BVAS system to make it more functional during subsequent elections like the Federal Capital Territory, the Osun and Ekiti States governorship elections.
The election observers explained that unless the mistakes of the BVAS were corrected, it stood the chances of encumbering the 2023 general election.
They called on President Muhammadu Buhari to quickly sign the Electoral Reform Bill currently before him, reminding him that he has up to December 19 this year to sign the bill, having been forwarded to him on November 19.
Earlier, National Commissioner and Chairman Elections and Political Parties Monitoring, Prof. Kunle Ajayi, said already, “the Commission has taken stock of reports of its own supervisors during the election and your reports will no doubt enrich our review process ahead of the two governorship elections coming up in 2022, as well as the general election in 2023”
