INEC To Deploy Over 11,000 BVAS Machines For Upcoming Governorship Elections

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is all set to deploy 11,355 Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for governorship elections in Kogi, Bayelsa, and Imo states in November.

The voting for governorship elections scheduled for Nov. 11 will take place in 2,244 polling units in Bayelsa, 3,508 polling units in Kogi, and 4,758 polling units in Imo.

BVAS machines installed by INEC came under fire earlier this year as the presidential and National Assembly elections were reportedly marred by allegations of BVAS malfunction. Although INEC noted that there was a 98 percent of success rate. Hence, it will continue to deploy the same machines in the upcoming elections.

One of the officials claimed on Sunday that "the BVAS never malfunctioned," adding that the commission hope that it can "do more than" what it did during previous elections, held earlier this year, Punch reported.

Last week, INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu disclosed during a meeting with media stakeholders in Lagos that the election results were recorded properly despite several challenges.

"This is an opportunity for the media executives in their various organizations to tell us what you have seen and how we can continue to improve on the electoral process in the future," he said during the meeting, TheCable reported.

The chairman went on to share that the commission has nothing to hide, noting that this type of interaction helps them to continuously improve for the future election process.

"Clearly, there are many positives coming from the general elections and at the same time, we admit that there are many challenges in the last elections," he added. "There are several election litigations at the various elections tribunals nationwide while we should be careful not to touch on issues that are clearly subjudice."

Yakubu pointed out challenges in the previous elections, explaining that there were many Nigerians who were not able to vote on election day simply "because our laws say that you can only vote where you are registered."

He continued, "So most of the journalists on the election day worked in places other than where they are registered so they don't have the opportunity to vote. This doesn't apply only to journalists, it also applies to officials of INEC itself; the regular and ad-hoc officials, including the security agencies."

However, with the help of interactions, the commission has received recommendations from the stakeholders to see in what areas INEC is going "to approach the national assembly to amend the laws."