In a bid to encourage eligible voters in the country to register, the Independent National Electoral Commission is considering the devolution of Continuous Voter Registration CVR exercise to Ward level nationwide.
INEC Chairman Mahmood Yakubu, who made the disclosure at a meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners (RECs) also stated that the Commission will devolve the CVR exercise to Ward level in both Ekiti and Osun States to enable more citizens register ahead of the forthcoming elections in both states.
“Similarly, in order to provide more eligible voters with the opportunity to register, the Commission is considering the devolution of the exercise nationwide beyond our State and Local Government offices where the registration currently takes place”.
Speaking on the performance of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System BVAS in recent elections, the INEC chairman acknowledged the challenges to the optimal functionality of the device and assured that the commission will review and improve its functionality for accreditation of voters in the forthcoming elections.
The INEC boss asserted that “The benefits of these new innovations to the electoral process and the credibility of our elections have been enormous.
“The outcome of elections conducted since the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) in the Isoko South I State Constituency bye-election, followed by the Anambra State Governorship election and most recently in the FCT Area Council election has been positively adjudged by observers as credible.
“When the Commission introduced the BVAS last year, the compact device was intended to achieve two objectives. First is the verification of the genuineness of the Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs) and the fingerprint or facial authentication of voters during accreditation.
“Secondly, to replace the Z-pad for uploading the polling unit results to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV) in real-time on Election Day. So far, the BVAS has performed optimally in verifying the authenticity of PVCs and uploading images of Polling Unit results to the IReV. However, the challenges are acknowledged and we are working on them”.
The Commission strongly believes that the deployment of technology in elections safeguard the integrity of the vote and provides guarantee for electoral credibility.
Another important issue noted by the Chief electoral umpire at the meeting with RECs were that of congested Polling Units and other Polling Units with between 0 and 50 voters, promising that
the Commission will intensify efforts to address the issue before the Ekiti, Osun and the 2023 General Elections.
