Less than two weeks after the national chairman of his ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Abdullahi Adamu raised concerns over the planned deployment of the Biometric Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, for next year’s general election, the presidential candidate of the APC, Bola Tinubu has asserted that the electoral umpire is yet to assure Nigerians of the fidelity of the system.
Africa Today News, New York reports that since 2011, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had been introducing technological innovations to enhance the electoral process.
It began by introducing BVAS and the INEC Results Viewing Portal IReV for some off-season elections and is set to deploy both innovations for the general election.
There had been allegations that some members of the political class were uncomfortable with the development.
However, speaking on Monday at a Chatham House session in London, Tinubu said; ‘We are still building confidence in our democratic and voting system. INEC is still yet to assure us during this election that electronic transmission – the technology being used for accreditation and the total vote count is reliable, dependable, and assuring in our democratic process before we introduce a complicated element of ballot counting.’
At a meeting with the pre-election delegation of the Commonwealth Election Observation Mission last month in Abuja, Senator Adamu said; ‘First, I was privileged to serve as a Senator. Our concern is how ready are we to deploy some of these technologies as regards transmission because we are taking a major step in transmitting election results in real-time?
‘To transmit results, every part of the nation Nigeria, I am not sure that the network covers it. I know that even in parts of Abuja, there is no network and we have from now till February when in substantial parts of the country there is no electricity.
‘INEC must assure us 100 percent that as and when due in transmitting results, they are ready because they spoke about recharging batteries but we had in previous elections when it said it could not recharge’.
At the same meeting, the National Organizing Secretary of the party, Ambassador Suleiman Argungu also said the new technology may not work in his home state, Kebbi.