THE Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, developed by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to inject technological impetus into our electoral system must be worked on to minimise the suffering of voters.

It has caused a lot of anger and frustration in the three instances it was deployed. These were the Isoko South 1 State Constituency election on September 11, 2021; the Anambra State Governorship election of November 9, 2021 and the just-concluded FCT Area Council elections on February 12, 2022.

The BVAS in most cases failed to do its job efficiently. Many people who came out to vote had to remain under the sweltering sun all day.

INEC’s engineers and technical partners must do all in their power to improve the BVAS as we prepare for the Ekiti State and Osun State governorship elections as well as the all-important general elections of 2023.INEC under Prof. Mahmood Yakubu has displayed commendable proactiveness towards ensuring our seamless transition to a technology-driven voting process where human interference with the balloting and result declaration processes will be minimal. It has opened up several online portals for continued registration of voters, CVR, and the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IREV.

The Commission’s engineers designed the INEC Voter Enrolment Device, IVED, which was manufactured abroad. It is this device that is used as the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System. It is intended as an improvement on the Smart Card Reader, SCR, introduced by Prof. Attahiru Jega.

This device has shown its ability to produce cleaner elections as multiple voting has been cut off.But its frequent slow or non-functionality exasperates and disenfranchises voters. It is capable of discouraging many from coming out to vote.

INEC must do something about it pronto. Nigerians are watching to see if the next series of off-cycle elections and bye-elections will witness an improved functionality of this accreditation device. It will help them decide to vote or not to bother.

The 2015 general election was adjudged “free and fair” only because peace-loving former President Goodluck Jonathan refused to challenge it in court. Jega’s Smart Card Readers failed in many parts of the country.

The discriminate adoption of the Incident Form in some parts of the country in place of the SCR led to suspicious voter turnouts that favoured the eventual winner.If the BVAS is not immediately addressed, the same thing can happen in 2023.

That will defeat the Mahmood Yakubu INEC’s good intentions to switch us over to technology for greater efficiency.

The 2023 elections provide Nigerians with perhaps the last opportunity to vote in good leaders who can pull back the country from the edge of the abyss. INEC must finetune its act to give Nigerians a free, fair and credible election.

Vanguard News Nigeria