NEC to deploy total of 176,846 BVAS for general election, says additional 17,618 will be available as backup
With less than 100 days to the general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has announced that it will deploy a total of 176,846 bimodal voter accreditation systems (BVAS) across the federation for next year’s elections.
According to the commission, each registration area in the country will receive two BVAS devices for accreditation, and another 17,618 BVAS devices will be provided as a reserve for the election.
Okoye also disclosed that INEC’s data recovery centres would be upgraded and all its platforms would be improved ahead of the elections to prevent the constant attacks on the platform by hackers and political actors, stating that the commission is determined to conduct free and fair elections in 2023.
He added that INEC would continue to bring technology to Nigeria’s electoral process to ensure free and fair elections.
The commission is determined to conduct free, fair, transparent and inclusive elections,” the INEC commissioner said.
“The Commission will continue to be open and transparent with its technological innovations because elections are a public matter and the public has a right to know what the Commission is doing.
“e commission will continue to be open and transparent in its technological innovations because election business is public business and the public has a right to know what the commission is doing.
INEC will continue to gradually infuse technology in the electoral process to enhance transparency and verifiability in voter authentication and result management. The level of technological development in the country and the state of infrastructure will invariably impact the technology the commission can deploy.
“In this regard, the commission will continue to make haste slowly as accuracy in result management is more important than the speed at which technology is introduced.
“We are confident that the BVAS and IReV will form an important pillar and component in the march towards an electoral process driven by technology to obviate malicious human interference in the electoral process.”