The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC says that the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, will be deployed for the conduct of the Area Council Election in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.
INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu stated this today during the first quarterly Quarterly Meeting between INEC and Civil society organisations at the INEC conference room, Abuja.
Speaking on the February 12 FCT council elections, Yakubu said, “It is now 25 days to the Area Council elections in the FCT. Major activities have already been carried out, including the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates by political parties. Only last week, the Commission presented the register of voters to political parties while the PVCs for new registrants, requests for transfers and replacement of cards have been printed and delivered several weeks ago to our FCT office for collection by voters.”
He said, “For emphasis, the BVAS will be deployed in the FCT elections which is the second major election after the Anambra governorship election held in November last year.
“The 68 constituencies in the FCT (six chairmen and 62 councillors) covering extensive urban and rural locations sharing border with five states in the North Central and North Western parts of the country is another opportunity to pilot the efficacy of the BVAS in a different geographical, geo-political and electoral context.
“The same technology will be deployed in all forthcoming bye-elections across the country. For all elections going forward, polling unit results will be uploaded in real-time to the INEC Result Viewing portal.”
On the Electoral Amendment Bill before the National Assembly, Professor Yakubu appealed to legislators to give it the desired attention.
He noted that when the electoral amendment bill is passed into law, the commission would commence activities for the 2023 general election.
On the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) which commenced in June last year, the INEC boss explained that at the moment, the Commission was undertaking the most comprehensive cleaning up of the data to ensure that only eligible citizens were added to the voters’ register for the 2023 General Election.
Professor Yakubu also explained that Party primaries for the Ekiti State Governorship election are scheduled for 4th – 29th January 2022 while that of Osun State Governorship election, would hold from 16th February to 12th March this year.
He urged political parties in Ekiti and Osun States to ensure the conduct of transparent and rancour-free primaries as any primaries conducted outside the two States would not be monitored by the Commission and their outcomes would not be accepted.
