*INEC Chairman fails to deliver credible election via PVC, BVAS, others as promised
*Ignored Nigerians who raised alarm when INEC officials failed to upload results to IReV
*Waited until evening of February 26 before admitting failure of BVAS to upload
*Went ahead and declared a winner without addressing issues raised by stakeholders
By our correspondent
In the build up to the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC insisted on the use of modern technology, particularly the Bimodal Voter Registration System, BVAS and the Election Result Viewing Portal, IReV.
At various occasions, the Commission’s Chairman, Professor Mahmood Yakubu told Nigerians and the world at large that the reason for the deployment of such technology was to bequeath transparency as well as credibility to the crucial presidential election scheduled to hold on February 25, 2023.
Mahmood kept telling Nigerians that there is no going back on the use of the technology notwithstanding that some persons were at that time calling for his resignation or removal over his position on the matter.
He had explained that BVAS is a technological device used to identify and accredit voters’ fingerprints and facial recognition before voting, while the IReV is an online portal where polling unit level results are uploaded directly from the polling unit, transmitted and published for the public.
According to him, at the front end of the online portal, members of the public can create personal accounts with which they can gain access to all uploaded results stored as PDF files insisting that accessibility of polling unit level results increases transparency and public trust in the process.
The INEC boss had maintained that introduction of such technologies will curtail some weaknesses in Nigeria’s election result management process such as falsification of votes at polling units, falsification 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.
However, despite assurances by the INEC Chairman that the use BVAS, IReV and other technologies in the conduct of elections in Nigeria could forestall election rigging as well as improve public confidence in electoral outcomes, some failures were recorded in the use of BVAS during elections before the 2023 general elections.
It would be recalled that when the election umpire first deployed BVAS in the Isoko South Constituency 1 bye-election in Delta State on September 10, 2021, some presiding officers complained that the machine had difficulties capturing the thumbs and faces of some of the voters, especially elderly voters.
Despite the assurances that BVAS was full-proof in the last Anambra State governorship election, there were some challenges experienced at some polling units in the state owing to its malfunction. As a result, the Commission was compelled to extend the voting time from 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. at the same pooling units.
Also, during the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council Election of February 12, 2022, there were lots of challenges caused by BVAS as evidenced in reports by voters and observer groups.
But Yakubu insisted that for the 2023 general elections to be free, fair and credible, “there is no going back on the use of electronic technology such as Permanent Voters’ Card, PVC, Biomodal Voter Accreditation System,” BVAS, among others.
When it was reported that INEC was under pressure to discard the use of PVC and BVAS during the 2023 general elections, the Chairman further assured Nigerians that there was no plan to discard the use of PVC, BVAS and the electronic transmission of results.
Addressing participants in Abuja at a training of master trainers on technologies for 2023 general elections, Yakubu, said the Commission was determined to deploy the BVAS technology for the conduct of a free, fair, credible and transparent election and appealed to political parties and their candidates to shun politics of violence.
When results of the presidential and National Assembly elections held on February 25, 2023 began to trickle in, there were complains across the country that the officials of INEC have not been able to upload results from the polling units to the result viewing portal, IReV, but the Chairman dismissed the reports and collation of results continued.
The Commission waited until evening of Sunday, February 26 before it admitted that its Result Viewing Portal, IREV malfunctioned during Saturday’s presidential and National Assembly elections nationwide.
In a statement, the National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye said the problem was totally due to technical hitches.
He said unlike in off-season elections where the portal was used, it was relatively slow and unsteady during Saturday’s elections, regretting the setback, “especially because of the importance of IReV in our results management process.”
According to him, the problem was totally due to technical hitches related to scaling up the IReV from a platform for managing off-season State elections, to one for managing nationwide general elections. It is indeed not unusual for glitches to occur and be corrected in such situations.
“Consequently, the Commission wishes to assure Nigerians that the challenges are not due to any intrusion or sabotage of our systems, and that the IReV remains well-secured.
“Our technical team is working assiduously to solve all the outstanding problems, and users of the IReV would have noticed improvements since last night.
“We also wish to assure Nigerians that, results from the Polling Units, copies of which were issued to political parties, are safe on both the BVAS and the IReV portal. These results cannot be tampered with and any discrepancy between them and the physical results used in collation will be thoroughly investigated and remediated, in line with Section 65 of the Electoral Act 2022.
“While we fully appreciate the concerns of the public on this situation and welcome various suggestions that we have received from concerned Nigerians, it is important to avoid statements and actions that can heat up the polity at this time or promote disaffection towards the Commission.
“We take full responsibility for the problems and regret the distress that they have caused the candidates, political parties and the electorate”, Okoye stated.
Notwithstanding admittance of failure or “technical glitches”, according to INEC officials, the Chairman Professor Mahmood Yakubu went ahead to announce results of the elections as brought physically by its 36 Resident Electoral Commissioners and that of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
The intervention of the agents of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, the Labour Party among others did not stop Professor Yakubu from declaring the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Bola Ahmat Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election amidst protests.
He promised to address proven cases of fraudulent activities before, during and after the presidential election assuring that all noticeable errors must have been corrected before the March 11, 2023 governorship and Houses of Assembly elections.
