INEC Chairman: Our Greatest Achievement is Deepening Technology in Election Management
Prof. Mahmood Yakubu
•Says BVAS will be used in Ekiti, Osun, 2023 polls
Chuks Okocha
At a meeting with members of the European Mission in Nigeria, the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, yesterday, declared that the greatest achievement of the commission since the 2019 general election was the deepening and deployment of technology in election management
The INEC chairman also disclosed that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) would be used in the Ekiti, Osun States governorship polls and ultimately, the 2023 general election.
Speaking in Abuja, when the Head of the EU Follow-up Mission, Maria Arena, who also headed the EU Election Observation Mission to Nigeria’s General Election in 2019, visited the commission, the INEC chairman said, INEC was the first electoral commission in West Africa, if not Africa, as a whole, to upload Polling Unit level results to a portal in real-time on Election Day.
“In addition, there are other portals for ease of nomination of candidates and submission of list of Polling Agents by political parties and the accreditation of media, domestic and international observers,” Yakubu said.
On the forthcoming governorship elections in Osun and Ekiti States, he said, “We will continue to carry out more pilot test of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and deploy the same device in the forthcoming Ekiti and Osun Governorship elections and ultimately the 2023 General Election.
“We have also made a huge progress in the area of voter accreditation through the deployment of (BVAS). We have carried out a number of pilots and in spite of the challenges encountered in some locations, we are convinced about its efficacy. In the six by-elections conducted last weekend in four States of the federation, the device performed optimally in both rural, sub-urban and urban areas, where the elections were held.”
Yakubu, who gave account of the review of the 2019 general election, said, “Immediately after the 2019 General Election, we undertook a comprehensive review of the election observation reports by accredited domestic and international observers.
“Beyond that, we conducted our own internal review involving our regular and ad hoc officials and subsequently expanded it to include political parties, civil society organisations, security agencies, media organisations.
“From the review, we identified 178 recommendations. We then categorised them into three areas for the purpose of implementation. We have gone ahead to implement many of the recommendations that require administrative action by the Commission, while working with the National Assembly on areas that require legislative action by way of amendments to the Electoral Act and the Constitution.
“Happily, this meeting is coming only five days after the Electoral Act 2022, which contains many progressive provisions, was signed into law and barely 24 hours after the National Assembly considered wide raging amendments to the 1999 Constitution,” he stated.
He explained that shortly after it was signed into law, the Commission released the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election which contains 14 activities out of which two have already been implemented.
These, he explained, were the publication of the Notice of Election and the availability of nomination forms on a dedicated portal for downloading by political parties.
Yakubu further said, “With regard to the 2019 General Election, the EU Observation Mission made 30 recommendations out of which 11 concerned the electoral Commission directly.
“Three of them were identified as priority recommendations while 8 are categorised as general. The priority recommendations include the improvement of organisational and operational capacity of the Commission as well as the management of election outcome, particularly, the availability and public access to results from Polling Units and collation centres,” he explained.
The INEC said since 2019, the commission has made progress, including the creation of a new Gender and Inclusivity Department as well as the Litigation and Prosecution Department.
“We have similarly expanded voter access to Polling Units for the first time in 25 years by converting the erstwhile 56,872 Voting Points and Voting Point (Settlements) into Polling Units and relocating some of them from congested locations to unserved and under-served locations, bringing the total number of Polling Units to 176,846.
“We must admit that in many states, we are struggling to achieve a more balanced distribution of voters to polling units. However, this is a priority project for the Commission, which will be accomplished before the 2023 General Election.”
He, however, assured his visitors that INEC would continue to improve on elections in Nigeria and be transparent in the management of the process.
For this reason, he said: “We always welcome suggestions for improvement by Nigerians as well as friends of Nigeria. We appreciate the support of the EU to the electoral process and democratic governance in Nigeria.”
