IN THE ARENA
The alleged subtle manoeuvres by shadowy political crisis entrepreneurs to enforce the dropping of the cutting-edge Bimodal Voter Accreditation System by the Independent National Electoral Commission in the 2023 general election must be stoutly resisted by well-meaning Nigerians, as well as the electoral umpire, writes Louis Achi
Nigeria’s elections, particularly the presidential poll scheduled for February 2023, by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) represents Africa’s biggest. The fact that the majority of poll results since Nigeria returned to civil rule 23 years ago cannot be said to have reflected the wishes of the majority makes getting the impending general election right and a non-negotiable imperative.
It is worth noting that unfettered political participation is one of the most important indicators of the democratic quality of elections and a prime criterion for defining democratic citizenship. This reality cannot be overstressed. Unimpeded voter turnout in a transparent, free and fair election is the most important form of political involvement and crucially also an important indicator of the state of health of any democracy.
Given its fundamental importance, both to the integrity of Nigeria’s constitutional democracy and sustenance of political stability, persistent discourse on the nation’s electoral transparency can never become hackneyed.
What are the key issues here and what really is at stake? The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and INEC Election Result Viewing Portal (IReV) represent two crucial technological advances for enhancing the transparency of election results and upscaling public belief in electoral outcomes.
According to INEC, these technologies are addressing the 10 most prevalent flaws in the nation’s election result management process. These include alteration of votes at polling units, distortion of number of accredited voters, collation of false results, mutilation of results and computational errors, swapping of results sheets, forging of results sheets, snatching and destruction of results sheets, obtaining declaration and return involuntarily, making declaration and return while result collation is still in progress and poor record-keeping.
The dual innovations perform mutually reinforcing and critical functions in elections. The BVAS is a technological device used to identify and accredit voters’ fingerprints and facial recognition before voting and also used for capturing images of the polling unit result sheet (Form EC8A) and uploading the image of the result sheet online.
On the other hand, IReV is an online portal where polling unit level results are uploaded directly from the polling unit, transmitted, and published for the public. At the front end of the online portal, citizens can create personal accounts with which they can access all uploaded results stored as PDF files. This accessibility of polling unit level results increases transparency and public trust in the process.
Diverse stakeholders have also described BVAS as an upgrade of the smartcard reader, which was used in the 2019 elections, and a game changer in the country’s electoral progression. In other words, the past debacle of politicians buying voters’ cards from voters and using them to vote en masse for a particular candidate would be eliminated. According to different civil groups and political parties, this will make the 2023 general election to be different.
But beyond enhancing public confidence in electoral outcomes, the introduction of BVAS and IReV apparently represented a potent threat to political actors bent on sabotaging the electorate’s will at all costs. Flowing from this scenario, the alleged attempts to derail INEC’s plans to safeguard the integrity of the election using the BVAS and IReV was not surprising.
An example is the recent alleged litigation instituted in the Imo State High Court seeking a restraining order against INEC to suspend the deployment of the BVAS for the general election. Who are the hawks seeking to undermine Nigeria’s electoral system in Imo State, a state that is always in the news for the wrong reasons?
The 2023 elections represent the seventh successive general election in the nation’s 23 years of uninterrupted democratic trajectory. With 10 million new voters added to the voters’ roll, an estimated 95 million registered voters will vote in 176,846 polling units distributed across 774 local government areas.
According to INEC’s data, a total of 12,163 candidates sponsored by 18 political parties are on the ballot for election into 109 senatorial districts, 360 federal constituencies, 993 state constituencies, 28 governorship positions, and the coveted Office of the President. The election is conducted against the backdrop of a new electoral law and innovations introduced by INEC to improve electoral integrity and inspire public confidence in the electoral process.
Cut to the bone, the accurate implementation, or otherwise, of these cutting-edge electoral innovations will undoubtedly play an important role in evaluating the integrity of the 2023 general election.
Against the backdrop of some of these surreptitious moves in Imo State, the Presidency has promised Nigerians that President Muhammadu Buhari has no plans to remove INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, over the use of BVAS, in the 2023 general election.
Buhari’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina also dismissed claims that INEC would be stopped from using BVAS in the next general election, recalling that the president had emphasised the need for technology in prosecuting a successful election and supports the course.
Hear him: “Recently, there was one group that said the Chairman of INEC was going to be removed because maybe they didn’t want BVAS. How many times has the President spoken about the role of technology in getting him into office?
“So, how and why can the same person have issues with BVAS? I saw that group on television, alleging that there was plan to remove the INEC Chairman and the media gave them that opportunity.”
Reacting to reports on social media claiming that a lawsuit was instituted before the Federal High Court in Owerri, Imo State, seeking to stop INEC from using BVAS for the 2023 elections, INEC Commissioner, Mr. Festus Okoye said the use of BVAS for elections in the country is stipulated in the Electoral Act of 2022.
Reassuringly, the INEC spokesperson said the commission is not scared of any legal action which may seek to challenge the legality of the use of BVAS adding that Nigerians have accepted its use and the commission will not relent on its commitment to improve the electoral process via technology.
His words: “The BVAS is domiciled within the confines of the Electoral Act of 2022 and we do not have any fear whatsoever in relations to the validity and legality of the BVAS and other technological and electronic devices we are using for elections.
“The constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has given INEC the exclusive right, power and mandate to organise, undertake and supervise elections that are captured within the confines of the constitution. We are accountable to the people of this country and the people have accepted the BVAS as a game changer in our electoral process.”
Significantly, the ruling APC and main opposition PDP have both denied applying pressure on INEC to drop BVAS. Last week, a spokesperson of the PDP Presidential Campaign team, Daniel Bwala, pointed his finger at the ruling party.
His words: “Those who are going against BVAS, I must say, are members of the APC. No members of the PDP would be campaigning for that. The whole gambit of an election is that whatever that is decided at the polling unit should be final….It is a primitive and medieval age thing to kick against BVAS”
But the APC spokesperson, Felix Morka, would have none of that, stating that the party has confidence in the electoral process. “The All Progressives Congress (APC) has confidence in INEC’s capacity to conduct next year’s general election in compliance with the Electoral Act and its own guidelines,” he reportedly said.
