…We are really comfortable where we are – INEC Boss
…Says Commission won’t wait until main elections to test system integrity
…Eyes body odour identification technology
By Moses Adeniyi
As Nigerians are trooping out across the nation to collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) in preparation for the 2023 General Elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has disclosed that it will conduct mock accreditation fo voters nationwide, using the Bimodal Voters Accreditation System (BVAS) ahead of the 2023 general elections.
This is coming amidst fears expressed over the viability of the machines of the BVAS infrastructure which INEC has resolved to employ as the technology for voters accreditation for the 2023 General Elections.
Although there has been resistance from some quarters on the use of the technology, alleging possible glitches, INEC has maintained its stand on deploying the technology, while allaying fears of technical glitches.
The INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, speaking on Tuesday at the Chatham House, in London, further disclosed that a mock test of voters accreditation would be carried out nationwide, to test run the integrity of the new mechanisms using the BVAS infrastructure.
He disclosed that the mock accreditation would be carried out across selected polling units to ascertain the reliability strength of BVAS before the actual elections begin in February.
Stating that every BVAS machine deployed across the 774 local government had been tested, the INEC Boss affirmed that the output of the functionality “is simply encouraging.”
Yakubu also reiterated that provisions have been made for backup machines in case of system glitches, adding that with all preparations on ground, the Commission is really “comfortable and happy.”
“We have the machines for the 2023 elections, but we didn’t want to take chances. Each and every machine has been tested and confirmed functional. For the last two weeks our officials were in the 36 States of the Federation testing these machines, and the functionality is simply encouraging.
“The second thing we’re going to do, and pretty soon, is to conduct mock accreditation exercise nationwide ahead of the elections. We won’t wait until the main elections come, we will test the integrity of these machines with real-life voters in selected polling units across the country.
“We did so in Ekiti and Osun, it was fantastic and we’re going to do so nationwide. Increasingly our people are becoming more excited about the deployment of this technology and we’re really happy.
“Also in terms of the numbers of these BVAS machines, we always make provision in case of malfunction or glitches. There is always a backup. We have IReV technical support that will fix the machines in the unlikely event of any glitches,” the INEC Boss said.
He, however, stated that where the machine “fails to function completely in a polling unit,” there were from previous experience “isolated polling units,” as the law has provided a remedy that the Commission “should re-mobilise and re-conduct elections.”
“So, we are really, really comfortable where we are,” he assured.
Meanwhile, the INEC Boss has further disclosed that the Commission in future time in its technology drive to revolutionalise the nation’s electoral process, may adopt a technology using body odour for voter verification.
Yakubu who applauded the Commission’s in-house engineers for the design of the BVAS and for other innovative ideas to enhance the electoral process, said an engineer at the Commission had proposed using body odour to verify voters, an idea he said should be reserved and developed for later elections than 2023.
He said, “The clean up of the register was painstakingly conducted by the Commission because of the Automated Biometric Identification System ABIS. Before now, the Commission used the AFIS, the fingerprint identification system but this time around, we used the ABIS, meaning both fingerprint and facial, and that is what we are also using to accredit voters on election day.
“All these innovations were all the work of INEC’s own in-house engineers in the Commission. The machines may have been fabricated outside the country, but the design of the machines were done by our own engineers in-house.
“In fact, one of them said they were going to introduce a new biometric using body odour. I said, ‘please, not yet. Let’s make haste slowly.’ But when he explained it to me, it sounded logical. He said, don’t laugh, chairman, because I said body odour is also biometric. He said, how does your dog recognize you? It is from your body odour and that is why if another person walks into the house it barks, when you move into the house, it wags its tail because it recognises your body odour. I said, ‘but for elections let’s wait, not now.’”
While Nigerians have continuously been urged to troop out en masse to collect their PVCs to enable them exercise their right to make their choice of leaders in 2023, the question of the viability of the new technology employed by INEC have been a subject of discourse, with questions put to INEC to assure Nigerians of the reliability of the new systems.
Although, BVAS was deployed for the gubernatorial elections in Osun and Ekiti State elections respectively in 2022, Nigerians have questioned its efficacy on a nationwide stretch.
BVAS is an improvement on the Smart Card Readers (SCR) introduced in 2012 and used for the 2015 and 2019 General Elections to verify the PVCs. The system was built with the use of Automated Facial Identification System (AFIS). However, though the system recorded some successes to clean up the voters register, it was insufficient to sanitise the register, with much glitches of system failure. AFIS centred majorly on facial identification, while the new ABIS recognises both facial recognition and fingerprints for identification.