Yiaga Africa Welcomes Deployment of Bimodal Voter Accreditation System Proposed by INEC
- Yiaga Africa has commended INEC for its consistent effort to improve the quality and transparency of elections
- The organisation particularly cited the deployment of technology in the electoral process by the commission
- INEC had in its quarterly Consultative meeting with Civil Society Organisations shared its news plans
FCT, Abuja - Yiaga Africa has commended the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for its plan to deploy the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation of voters and to enable near real-time viewing of results.
Cynthia Mbamalu, Yiaga Africa's director of programs said in a statement:
“This all-in-one technology is a multifunctional integrated device that serves multiple purposes for different activities in the value chain of elections in Nigeria.”
Source: Getty Images
She said it includes:
PAY ATTENTION: Install our latest app for Android, read best news on Nigeria’s #1 news app
1. Serving as the INEC Voter Enrolment Device (IVED) during voter registration,
2. Serving as the BVAS for voter accreditation on election day which replaces the smart card reader, and
3. Serving as the INEC Results Viewing Device (IReV Device) to be used for election results upload on election day.
She added:
“This recent innovation is worthy of commendation especially because it is designed to ensure full voter authentication on election day.
“This is particularly important because as revealed in previous Yiaga Africa Watching the Vote election observation reports, the smart card reader while achieving an impressive level of functionality had a major challenge with full biometric authentication of voters.
“The BVAS as presented will address this issue because it is designed as a bimodal biometric authentication device integrating both fingerprint and facial technology.
“Accordingly, on election day, the device will be used to authenticate voters either through fingerprint or facial recognition during accreditation.
“Where fingerprint authentication fails, facial authentication will be done. Where both fingerprint and facial authentication fails, the voter will not be allowed to vote.”
Legit.ng gathered that during its quarterly meeting with Civil Society Organisations in Abuja, the INEC assured all present that the new machine is robust and sufficient to further guarantee the credibility of the voter accreditation and result management process.
The commission said the technology will significantly reduce or possibly eliminate incidents of multiple voting, PVC buying and selling, and PVC theft.
The BVAS pilot exercise will be used in the Isoko South State Assembly Constituency bye-election in Delta state.
Yiaga Africa working towards the successful conduct of Anambra election
Meanwhile, Yiaga Africa recently commenced its observation of the pre-election environment in Anambra state ahead of the Saturday, November 6 governorship election.
Through its Watching The Vote (WTV), citizens’ election observation project, Yiaga Africa is tracking and reporting pre-election activities for immediate response by stakeholders.
Through the pre-election observation, Yiaga Africa will track the efficacy of the role of major election stakeholders, early warning signs, and any form of incidents that can hinder the successful conduct of the elections.
The struggles of smaller political parties in Nigeria
In a related development, Leonard Nzenwa, chairman, Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC), says smaller political parties in the country are going through various challenges, hence, their inability to contend with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Nzenwa made the statement in an exclusive interview with Legit.ng on Thursday, August 26 at a town hall meeting hosted by Say No Campaign in Abuja.
He said the newer political parties cannot compete with the bigger ones because they do not have access to the funds of the state.
Source: Legit.ng
