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Politics of Sunday, 5 February 2023

Source: www.premiumtimesng.com

INEC, voters express satisfaction with mock accreditation in FCT

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Residents and Officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) who took part in the mock accreditation exercise in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have expressed satisfaction with the process.

INEC had scheduled the mock accreditation for February in selected polling units in the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to further familiarise voters with the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) machine and increase voters’ confidence in the commission’s activities.

While monitoring the exercise in some parts of the Federal Capital Territory, INEC Chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, a professor, expressed satisfaction with the performance of the BVAS machine.

The aim of conducting the mock accreditation is to further confirm the performance of the BVAS machine, he said.

Mr Yakubu, who visited some of the polling units, stated that the commission did not receive any report of accreditation failure.

“In the two polling units we have visited so far, there is no report of failure; the machines have performed optimally and this is the report we are getting so far, nationwide,” he said.

“We have also made contingency arrangements like we will do on Election Day, that there is a spare machine in case, and in the unlikely event of a malfunction, we will be able to respond and fix the machines.”

Mr Yakubu explained that from the mock exercise witnessed, it took less than 30 seconds to accredit a voter, adding that this was the report INEC was getting from all the selected polling units nationwide.

PREMIUM TIMES’S reporters who monitored the exercise across different polling units in the FCT observed a quite low turnout of voters for the mock accreditation.

Those who spoke, however, expressed confidence in the BVAS and noted that the process was swift.

Abuja Municipal Area CouncilAround 12:00 pm, Chris Nwuani tried to get accredited at the Area 10 polling unit.

Even though not his polling unit of registration, Mr Nwani said he wanted to be sure about INEC’s claim that the machine would only accredit individuals at their registered polling units.

“This is not my polling unit,” he said. “But I came to try to see truthfully what we’ve been hearing about the BVAS and all that. I got here and from the beginning they checked and they told me my number is not here. But one of the supervisors said they should try it if the BVAS will accept it or not. So, when they checked, the BVAS said no, the information cannot be found here.”

While the BVAS failed to accredit him, it accredited other voters who are from the Area 10 polling unit, he said.

INEC officials at the polling unit told our reporter that they accredited eight individuals so far at 12:00 pm. There is a total of 2052 registered voters in the polling unit, one of the officials said.

This experience, Mr Nwani said, increased his confidence that the BVAS “is active enough to identify every eligible voter.”

“There is no way the BVAS will not identify a voter,” one official serving as the Presiding Officer at the Area 10 polling unit told our reporter.

He said the BVAS will identify a voter through any of their ten fingers, and if that fails, the handler of the BVAS will use the facial recognition feature to identify the voter.

Bwari Area CouncilAt Esu (Sa-Bwaya) Palace, Bwari Area Counci,l Abuja, a total of 36 people were accredited out of the 1,799 total registered voters at the ward, according to the electoral officer, Gloria Stephens.

The electoral officer who described the mock accreditation as smooth, said the exercise kicked off at about 8:30 a. m.

“The process has been smooth I must say, we have been able to use two BVAS to accredit 36 people so far and the network has been fine at this area.

“We have a total of 1,799 total registered voters. We are hoping for more,” he said.

At the Centre, it was observed that international Observer groups such as the NDI were present to monitor the accreditation process.

READ ALSO: Buhari expresses satisfaction with Niger presidential electionAlso a total of three political agents were present: the ruling APC, and the major opposition parties, PDP and ADC.

Qosim Suleiman is a reporter at Premium Times in partnership with Report for the World, which matches local newsrooms with talented emerging journalists to report on under-covered issues around the globe

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