INEC Fully Ready for Elections, Yakubu Declares

*Says commission to transmit accreditation figures, results simultaneously

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is fully ready to hold this year’s general election, its chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said.
Yakubu spoke following the successful conduct of its nationwide mock accreditation yesterday.
The mock accreditation exercise was meant to test the effectiveness of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) being deployed for the election nationwide as a replacement for the card reader.

The exercise took place in about 436 polling units in the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, with two polling units drawn from six local government areas and two Area councils of the FCT.
The INEC boss monitored the exercise in two polling units in Abuja Municipal Area Council and Bwari Area council, expressing satisfaction with the conduct of the exercise.

Addressing journalists after the monitoring of the exercise, Yakubu said what the commission intended to achieve was to test the integrity of the machines further it would deploy on election day.

The INEC boss said accreditation figures and results would be transmitted simultaneously on election day.
He added that such simultaneous transmission would ensure the figures correlate.
He said although the commission would not comment on the court judgment of the Osun State governorship election because it amounts to subjudice, it has learnt some lessons.

“However, in every situation, the commission learns, carries the experience from what has happened to improve the processes for the next election,” the INEC chairman said.
“We have learned some lessons from what happened, and one of the lessons is to be able to transmit the accreditation data,” he added.
Hesaid INEC created a new uniform resource locator (URL) on its results viewing portal where both the accreditation figure and results could be viewed.
He said: “We are satisfied with the tests in our office, but we needed to test the machines in the field ahead of the election. Bearing in mind that this is the first time we deployed the devices nationwide, so we have identified 436 polling units nationwide on the equality of tests of the federation, based on two local governments per senatorial district and four polling units by the local government, making a total of 16 polling units per state, based on which you have not deployed the machines.

“So, in the FCT, four polling units are earmarked for the test. This is one of the polling units. The other one is the one we visited at the post office. And so far, so good; voters have been verified using their PVCs and then authenticated, using their fingerprint or facial, based on which they will be given the ballot papers on election day after successful accreditation.

“There is no failure report in the two polling units visited so far. The machines are performed optimally. And this is the report we’re getting so far nationwide, but we have also made contingency arrangements, like we will do on election day, that there is a spare machine in the case and the unlikely event of a malfunction. We will be able to respond and fix the machines. But so far, so good, no incident, no failure, and we’re hoping and praying,” he said.

The INEC boss expressed optimism that having worked very hard that the machines would also perform optimally during the February 25 and March 11 elections
He added: “Well, you have seen so far. In this polling unit, the last person accredited in our presence took less than 30 seconds to accredit. This is the report we are getting from all the nationwide polling units. So the speed is good. And also the authentication is good.”